iliiii 


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THE 

WILLIAM  C.  SCHERMERHORN 
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fi 

n 

^m 

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ET     SINCERE 


lOHANNES  -CALVINVS  • 

ANNO  •A.TATIS-^^  ♦      . 


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CALVIN  AT  53.     FROM  AN    ENGRAVING  BY  RENE  BOYVIN. 


John  Calvin 

THE    ORGANISER    OF    REFORMED 
PROTESTANTISM 

1509  — 1564 


BY 

WILLISTON    WALKER 

TITUS   STREET    PROFESSOR   OF    ECCLESIASTICAL    HISTORY    IN    YALE    UNIVERSITY 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  ^N^ 

.1906- 


93/- Sf 


Copyright,  1906 

BY 

WILLISTON   WALKER 


-;:  'Vv' 


PREFACE 

THE  last  few  years  have  witnessed,  in  French  and 
German  speaking  lands,  a  marked  revival  of  in- 
terest in  the  person  and  work  of  Calvin.  The  pubhca- 
tion  of  the  monumental  edition  of  his  writings,  under 
the  editorship  of  a  distinguished  succession  of  Strass- 
burg  theologians,  has  been  accompanied  and  followed 
by  the  studies  of  Kampschulte,  Cornehus,  Lefranc, 
Lang,  Muller,  Wernle  and  Choisy,  and  has  its  crown 
in  the  great  work  of  Doumergue,  now  more  than  half 
completed.  The  resources  thus  freshly  placed  at  the 
disposal  of  the  historian  are  ample  excuse  for  a  new 
biography  of  Calvin  in  English;  and  the  writer  would 
make  grateful  acknowledgment  of  his  indebtedness  to 
the  labours  of  the  scholars  he  has  named. 

In  a  volume  Hmited  in  size  and  scope  by  conformity 
to  the  requirements  of  a  series,  as  this  necessarily  is, 
some  selection  as  to  the  weight  of  emphasis  is  impera- 
tive in  describing  a  career  so  full  of  incident,  of  con- 
troversy, and  of  far-reaching  influence  as  that  of  Cal- 
vin. The  writer  has  chosen  therefore  to  lay  special 
weight  on  Calvin's  training,  spiritual  development,  and 
constructive  work  rather  than  on  the  minutiae  of  hjs 
Genevan  contests,  or  the  smaller  details  of  his  relations 
to  the  spread  of  the  Reformation  in  the  various  coun- 
tries to  which  his  influence  extended.  Enough  has 
been  said  on  these  topics,  however,  the  writer  hopes, 


IV 


Preface 


to  make  evident  the  nature  and  course  of  Calvin's  prin- 
cipal controversies,  and  to  indicate  the  character  and 
the  wide  scope  of  his  connection  with  the  Reformation 
movement  as  a  whole. 

The  writer  desires  to  express  his  gratitude  for  most 
valuable  suggestions  and  assistance,  especially  in  pro- 
curing illustrations  for  this  volume,  to  Rev.  Dr.  Eugene 
Choisy  and  to  Rev.  H.  Denkinger-Rod,  of  Geneva, 
respectively  President  and  Curator  of  the  Societe  du 
musee  historique  de  la  Reformation  of  that  city;  and  to 
Rev.  Nathanael  Weiss,  Secretary  of  the  Societe  de 
rhistoire  du  Protestantisine  frangais  of  Paris. 

Yale  University, 

January  i,  1906. 


CONTENTS 

PAGR 

Preface iii 

Bibliographical  Note ix 

CHAPTER   I 
Talvin's  Spiritual  Antecedents .    .     i 

CHAPTER   II 
Childhood  and  Early  Student  Days,  1509-1527     ....     18 

CHAPTER   III 
Uncertainty  as  to  his  Work  in  Life,  15 28-1 533     ....     44 

CHAPTER   IV 
Religious  Development  and  Conversion,  15  28-1 533     .   .       71 

CHAPTER   V 
Flight  for  Safety  in  Concealment  and  Voluntary  Exile, 

1533-1535 ^°7 

CHAPTER  VI 
The  "Institutes,"  Italy,  and  Arrival  in  Geneva,  1535- 

1536 127 

CHAPTER  VII 
Geneva  till  Calvin's  Coming o  .  .  .  .     159 

CHAPTER   VIII 
Early  Work  at  Geneva,  i  536-1538 -  .    .     183 

V 


vi  Contents 

rAGB 

CHAPTER  IX 
In  Strassburg,  1538-1541 216 

CHAPTER  X 

Return   to    Geneva  —  Its   Ecclesiastical  Constitution, 

1541,  1542 245 

CHAPTER   XI 
Struggles  and  Conflicts,  i 542-1 553 281 

CHAPTER   XII 
The  Tragedy  of  Servetus— Calvin's  Victory  over  his 

Opponents,  1553-1557 325 

CHAPTER   XIII 
Calvin  crowns  his  Genevan  Work,  1559      359 

CHAPTER  XIV 
Influence  outside  of  Geneva 376 

CHAPTER  XV 
Calvin's  Theology 409 

CHAPTER  XVI 
Last  Days — His  Personal  Traits  and  Character,  1564  .     429 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGB 

Calvin  at  Fifty-three  Years  of  Age.     Frontispiece 
From  an  engraving  by  Rene  Boyvin,  now  in  the 
Collection  Gosse  in  Geneva,  reproduced  in  Charles 
Borgeaud's,  Histoire  de  I'univcrsite   de   Geneve, 
i,  84. 

General  View  of  Noy on   .  .  .  .  .12 

From  a  photograph  by   M.   Georges   Compiegne, 

Noyon 

The  Place  au  Ble,  Noy  on  ....        18 

From  a  photograph  by  M.   Georges  Compiegne, 
Noyon. 

Court  of  the  "  Maison  de  Calvin,  "  Noyon,   Prob- 
able Home  of  the  Calvin  Family  .  .        24 

From  a  photograph  by  M.  Georges  Compiegne, 
Noyon. 

Court  and  Stairway  of  the  "Maison  de  Calvin," 

Noyon   .......        52 

From  a  photograph  by  M.  Georges  Compiegne, 
Noyon. 

The  Cathedral,  Noyon     .  .  .  .  .114 

From  a  photograph  by  M.  Georges  Compiegne, 
Noyon. 

Guillaume  Farel 168 

From  Beza's  Icones. 


viii  Illustrations 

PAGE. 

The  Cathedral  (Saint-Pierre),  Geneva         .  -      ^74 

From  a  photograph. 

Towers  of  the  Cathedral  (Saint-Pierre),  Geneva      184 
From  a  photograph. 

Interior  of  the  Cathedral  (Saint-Pierre),  Geneva, 

where  Calvin  Preached  and  Taught    .  .      i94 

From  a  photograph. 

Calvin's  Chair  in  the  Cathedral  (Saint-Pierre), 

Geneva  ......      208 

From  a  photograph. 

Martin  Bucer  ......      218 

Autograph  Letter  of  Calvin     .  .  .  .278 

From  the  original  in  the  Thomas- Archiv,  Strass- 
burg,    reproduced   in   Opera   xxii,    frontispiece. 

Autograph  Letter  of  Servetus     .       .  .  .328 

From    the    original    in    Geneva,     reproduced    in 
Henry's  Das  Leben  Johann  Calvins,  iii,  136. 

Expiatory    Monument    to    Servetus,    Champel 

(Geneva).     Erected  in  1903       .  .  .342 

From  a  photograph  by  M.  Chautems,  Geneva. 

The  College  of  Geneva  before  its  Restoration       .      362 
From  a  photograph. 

Exterior  of  the  "Auditoire, "  Originally  *'Notre- 

Dame-la-Neuve,"  Geneva  .  .  -39© 

From  a  photograph. 

Interior  of  the  "Auditoire, "  where  Calvin  Taught  410 
From  a  photograph. 


Illustrations  ix 

PACK. 

Calvin  Preaching  or  Teaching  .  .  .     430 

From  the  painting  in  the  Ptihlic  Library  in  Geneva. 
This  is  a  copy  of  the  orij^inal  in  the  possession  oi 
the  Tronchm  family  in  Geneva,  » 

Stone  Commemorative  of  Calvin  in  the  Cemetery 

of  Plain-palais,  Geneva      ....     440 
From  a  photograph. 


iRev.  H.  Denkinger-Rod  writes  under  date  of  April  2, 
1903.  "  I  would  remark  that  there  is  no  painting  or  engrav- 
ing regarding  which  one  can  aPFirm  that  it  was  taken  from 
life.  Calvin  was  too  busy  during  his  life-time  to  find  leisure 
to  pose  for  an  artist.  But  as  he  inspired  great  admiration 
in  his  pupils  and  in  all  who  approached  him,  it  is  more 
than  probable  that,  without  his  knowledge,  sketches  were 
made  which  served  as  models  for  woodcuts  or  medals  ex- 
ecuted in  his  life- time  or  soon  after  his  death." 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL    NOTE 

THE  pathway  of  the  student  of  Calvin's  life  and  writ- 
ings and  of  the  literature  which  has  to  do  with 
him  has  been  made  easy  by  several  elaborate  bibliogra- 
phies. Best  of  all  is  that  prepared  by  the  late  Alfred 
Erichson,  the  most  recent  editor  of  Calvin's  Works,  for  the 
concluding  volume  of  the  series,^  and  also  issued  separately 
in  convenient  and  revised  form  as  Bibliographia  Calvini- 
ana.^  A  useful  list  is  that  given  in  the  second  volume  of 
Tlie  Cambridge  Modern  History.^  Older,  and  therefore  less 
valuable,  but  with  brief  critical  estimates  of  the  worth  of 
the  several  authors  cited,  is  that  of  Philip  Schaff  in  the 
seventh  volume  of  his  History  oj  the  Christian  Church.^ 

All  earlier  collections  of  Calvin's  Works,  as  a  whole,  have 
been  superseded  by  the  noble  edition,  Joannis  Calvini  Opera 
quae  super  sunt  omnia,  begun  in  1863  ^^^  completed  in  fifty- 
nine  volumes  in  igoo,^  under  the  able  editorship  of  the  Strass- 
burg  scholars,  Johann  Wilhelm  Baum,  Edouard  Cunitz, 
Edouard  Reuss,  Paul  Lobstein,  Alfred  Erichson,  and  their 
associates.  This  series  includes  in  volumes  i.-xa.  Calvin's 
theological  treatises;  in  volumes  xb.-xx.  letters  by  Calvin 
and  relating  to  him ;  in  volumes  xxiii.-lv.  his  homiletical  and 


^  Opera,  lix.  462-586,     He  died  April  12,  1901. 
*  Beriin,  igoo. 

3  Pp.  779-783,  London  and  New  York,  1904. 

4  Pp.  223-231,  681-686,  New  York,  1892. 

5  Braunschweig.  They  constitute  volumes  xxix.-lxxxvii.  of  the 
Corpus  Reformatorum.  A  sketch  of  the  execution  of  the  task,  by 
Erichson,  is  given  in  the  Bulletin  de  la  societe  du  Protestantisme  fran- 
gais,  xlix.  613  (1900). 


xii  Bibliographical  Note 

exegetical  works.     This  edition  is  cited  as  the  Opera  in  the 
notes  of  the  present  volume. 

The  correspondence  contained  in  the  Opera  is  supple- 
mented by  the  carefully  annotated  series  of  Correspondance 
des  rejormateurs  dans  les  pays  de  langiie  jrangaise,  of  which 
nine  volumes  were  issued  by  Aim^  Louis  Herminjard/ 
until  the  work  of  this  admirable  scholar  was  interrupted 
by  death.  The  later  volumes  of  Herminjard's  work  had 
the  advantage  of  publication  subsequent  to  the  cor- 
responding sections  of  the  Opera,  and  the  writer  has 
therefore  cited  them  in  references  to  Calvin's  letters  where 
they  thus  present  the  fruits  of  further  investigation. 

The  larger  portion  of  Calvin's  theological  and  exegetical 
writings  are  accessible  to  the  reader  who  knows  English 
only,  in  the  Works  of  John  Calvin,  published  in  fifty-two 
volumes,  1843-1855,  at  Edinburgh  by  the  "Calvin  Trans- 
lation Society."  The  Institutes  have  been  often  translated; 
most  worthily  by  Henry  Beveridge  for  the  series  just  named. 
A  selection  of  Calvin's  letters  collected  by  Jules  Bonnet  was 
printed  in  English  translation  in  part  at  Edinburgh,  in  1854, 
and  as  a  whole,  in  four  volumes,  as  Letters  oj  John  Calvin, 
dl  Philadelphia,  in  1858.  The  edition  should  be  used,  how- 
ever, only  in  comparison  with  their  more  critical  presenta- 
tion in  the  Opera  or  in  the  collection  of  Herminjard. 

The  earliest  lives  of  Calvin,  by  his  friends,  Beza  and  Col- 
ladon,  originally  published  in  1564,  1565,  and  1575,  may  be 
found  in  volume  xxi.  of  the  Opera.  That  of  Beza,  of  1575, 
is  printed,  in  English  translation  by  Beveridge,  in  Calvin's 
Tracts  in  the  edition  of  the  "Calvin  Translation  Society."^ 
Of  important  modern  biographies,  the  earliest  in  date  and 


1  Geneva,  1866-1897.     The  series  ends  with  the  year  1544.     Her- 
minjard died  at  Lausanne,  December  11,  1900. 

2  I.  xix-c,  Edinburgh,  1844. 


Bibliographical  Note  xiii 

the  amplest  in  learning  up  to  its  time  was  that  by  the  past<jr 
of  the  French  Church  in  Berlin,  Paul  Henry,  Das  Lcbcn 
Johann  Calvins  des  grossen  Reformators,  in  three  volumes, 
Hamburg,  183 5-1844.  Highly  eulogistic  and  the  fruit  of 
great  industry,  it  was,  for  its  epoch,  the  ablest  defence  as 
well  as  the  fullest  biography  of  the  Genevan  reformer;  but 
is  now  largely  superseded  by  later  publications.  A  maimed 
translation  into  English  (lacking  most  of  the  notes  and  ap- 
pendices which  give  much  of  value  to  the  original)  was  put 
forth  by  Henry  Stebbing,  in  1849.^ 

Diametrically  opposite  in  purpose,  and  lacking  all  claim 
to  regard  as  a  serious  attempt  to  ascertain  the  facts  of  his- 
tory, was  the  intensely  polemic  and  unscrupulous  Histoire 
de  la  vie,  des  ouvrages  et  des  doctrines  de  Calvin,  of  the  par- 
tisan Roman  Catholic,  Vincent  Audin,  published  at  Paris 
in  two  volumes  in  184 1.  An  English  translation,  by  John 
McGill,  was  issued  at  London  in  1843  ^^^  1850. 

In  1850,  the  English  historian,  Thomas  Henry  Dyer,  pub- 
lished at  London  his  Life  of  John  Calvin,  in  a  single  substan- 
tial volume.  Based  largely  on  a  careful  independent  study 
of  Calvin's  correspondence,  and  on  the  work  of  Henry,  it 
differs  much  in  tone  from  that  of  the  Berlin  biographer. 
Dyer's  attitude  toward  Calvin  is  critical,  not  to  say  severe; 
but  the  volume  is  one  of  much  merit.  It  discusses  Calvin's 
origins  and  early  history  with  brevity;  but  details  his  Gene- 
van controversies  with  thoroughness. 

In  1862  and  1863,  Felix  Bungener  published  a  popular 
history,  Calvin,  sa  vie,  son  ceuvre,  et  ses  ecrits,  in  two  vol- 
umes at  Paris,  which,  though  well  written,  added  little  to 
the  existing  knowledge  of  its  subject.  It  was  immediately 
translated  into  English,  and  appeared  at  Edinburgh  in  1863 

More  thorough  in    its  workmanship,  and  in  fact  one  ol 


London  and  New  York. 


xiv  Bibliographical  Note 

the  best  of  the  older  biographies  of  Calvin,  was  Johannes 
Calvin,  Lehen  und  ausgew'dhlte  Schriften,  by  Ernst  Staheiin, 
a  pastor  in  Basel,  published  at  Elberfeld  in  two  volumes, 
in  1863.  Staheiin 's  attempt  to  estimate  Calvin's  personal 
characteristics  was  peculiarly  successful. 

The  work  of  Jean  Henri  Merle  d'Aubigne,  Professor  in 
the  Free  Church  Theological  Seminary  at  Geneva,  the  first 
volume  of  which  appeared,  in  1863,  under  the  title  Histoire 
de  la  reformation  en  Europe  au  temps  de  Calvin,^  deserves 
mention  chiefly  because  of  its  enormous  circulation,  espe- 
cially in  English-speaking  lands.  Its  account  of  the  Gene- 
van Reformation  extends  to  1542.  Though  based  on  much 
use  of  documentary  sources,  it  is  essentially  partisan,  paints 
its  portraits  without  shade,  and  makes  constant  sacrifices 
to  dramatic  effect. 

A  biography  of  a  much  more  satisfactory  nature  was  that 
of  the  Old-Catholic  Professor  of  the  University  of  Bonn, 
Friedrich  Wilhelm  Kampschulte,  Johann  Calvin,  seine 
Kirche  und  sein  Staat  in  Genj.  The  first  volume  of  the  three 
planned  by  the  author  appeared  in  1869;  the  second  was 
complete  at  the  time  of  his  death  on  December  3,  1872,  but, 
though  intrusted  to  his  friend,  Professor  Carl  Adolf  Cor- 
nelius, of  Munich,  was  not  published  till  1899,^  and  then 
under  the  editorship  of  Dr.  Walter  Goetz  of  the  University 
of  Leipzig.  The  third  was  never  begun.  Though  undoubt- 
edly unsympathetic  and  too  much  inclined  toward  a  critical 
estimate  of  the  reformer,  and  not  a  little  influenced  by  the 
Galiffes  ^  who  regarded  Calvin  as  a  foreign  usurper  in  Gene- 

1  Paris,  1863-1878.  Eng.  tr.  London,  1863-1878;  New  York, 
1870-1879. 

2  Both  at  Leipzig. 

3  Jacques  August  Galiffc  and  Jean  Barthelemy  Gaifre  Galiffe,  of 
Geneva,  father  and  son,  maintained  with  much  learning  the  thesis 
that  Calvin  was  a  foreign  intruder  who  in1;roduced  into  Geneva,  before 


Bibliographical   Note  xv 

van  affairs,  Kampschultc's  volumes,  incomplete  as  they  arc, 
by  accuracy  of  scholarship  and  ac([uaintante  with  the  events 
in  which  Calvin  bore  a  i)art,  are  still  inclisi)ensaijle  t(j  tlie 
student.^ 

In  Amddee  Roget,  Professor  in  the  University  of  Geneva, 
that  city  possessed  a  capable  historian  of  its  affairs.  His 
Histoire  du  peuple  de  Genhve  depuis  la  rejonne  jiisquW 
r escalade,  in  seven  volumes,  1870-1883,  covers  the  period 
from  1536  to  1567,^  and  therefore  embraces  all  of  Calvin's 
Genevan  activity.  Remarkably  impartial,  and  essentially 
objective  in  its  treatment,  it  gains  high  value  from  its  con- 
stant citation  of  the  Genevan  archives,  with  which  the 
author  was  thoroughly  familiar. 

In  1888,  a  brilliant  young  scholar  of  France,  now  Profes- 
sor in  the  College  de  France  at  Paris,  Abel  Lefranc,  pub- 
lished at  Paris  a  study  of  Calvin's  youth  of  great  signifi- 
cance. La  jeunesse  de  Calvin. 

Four  years  later,  the  late  Professor  Philip  Schaff  gave,  as 
the  principal  content  of  the  seventh  volume  of  his  History 


his  time  free,  a  system  of  tyranny.  The  chief  works  of  the  elder 
GalifFe  were,  Materiaux  pour  V histoire  de  Geneve,  Geneva,  1829;  and 
Notices  genealogiques  sur  les  families  genevoises,  Ibid.,  1836.  Of 
the  younger,  Quelqiies  pages  d'histoire  exacte  (trials  of  Perrin  and 
Maigret),  in  the  Memoires  de  I'lnstitut  national  gencvois,  for  1862;  and 
Nouvelles  pages  d'histoire  exacte  (trial  of  Ameaux),  Ibid.,  for  1863. 
They  represent,  in  modern  times,  the  opposition  of  the  old-Genevan 
families  to  Calvin. 

1  The  writer,  while  recognising  Kampschulte's  predisposition  to 
severity  of  judgment,  believes  Doumergue's  criticism  of  him  too  un- 
favourable (ii.  717-721);  and  even  Doumergue  declares:  "For  Cath- 
ohc  historians,  it  is  certain  that  Kampschulte  and  Cornelius  have  given 
proof,  in  regard  to  Cafvin,  of  a  remarkable  impartiality";  though 
regarding  that  "impartiality"  as  inadequate. 

2  Published  at  Geneva.  Roget  intended  to  carry  his  work  further, 
but  was  interrupted  by  death  on  September  29,  1883. 


xvi  Bibliographical   Note 

of  the  Christian  Church,  a  careful  sketch  of  Calvin's  career 
and  significance,  marked  by  his  well-known  merits  and 
limitations.^ 

In  his  La  theocratic  a  Geneve  au  temps  de  Calvin,  published 
at  Geneva  in  1897,  a  Genevan  pastor  and  scholar,  Rev.  Dr. 
Eugene  Choisy,  has  presented  a  brief  but  very  valuable 
discussion  of  the  principles  which  underlay  Calvin's  Gene- 
van policy. 

A  cyclopaedia  article  of  more  than  usual  merit  was  that  of 
the  late  Professor  Rudolf  Stahelin  in  the  third  (Albert 
Hauck's)  edition  of  the  Realencyklopddie  fur  protestantische 
Theologie  und  Kirche.^ 

Calvin's  conversion,  earliest  theological  writings,  and  in- 
debtedness to  previous  reformers  have  been  subjected  to 
searching  and  rewarding  investigation  by  a  pastor  of  Halle, 
August  Lang.3  xhe  discussion  has  been  continued  in 
papers  of  high  importance  by  Professor  Karl  Muller  of 
Tubingen,4  and  Professor  Paul  Wernle  of  Basel. 5 

In  1899,  Kampschulte's  friend  and  fellow  Old-Catholic, 
the  late  Professor  Carl  Adolf  Cornelius^  of  Munich, 
gathered  the  studies  which  he  had  made  preparatory  to 
the  intended  completion  of  Kampschulte's  unfinished  work, 


^  New  York,  1892. 

2  III.  654-683,  Leipzig,  1897.     He  died  March  13,  1900. 

3  Die  dltesten  theologischen  Arheiten  Calvins,  in  the  Neue  Jahr- 
bucher  fur  deutsche  Theologie,  for  1893,  Bonn,  pp.  273-300;  Die 
Bekehrung  Johannes  Calvins,  in  the  Studien  zur  Geschichte  der  The- 
ologie und  Kirche,  Leipzig,  1897,  i.  1-57;  Der  Evangelienkomm^ntar 
Martin  Butzers,  Leipzig,  1900.  He  has  also  written  on  Calvin's 
household  hfe,  and  relations  to  Luther  and  Melanchthon. 

4  Calvhis  Bekehricng,  in  Nachrichten  von  der  konigl.  Gesellschajt 
der  Wissenschaften  zu  Gottlngen,  for  1905,  pp.  188-255. 

sNoch  einmal  die  Bekehrung  Calvins,  in  the  Zeitschrijt  jilr  Kirch- 
engeschichte,  xxvii.  84-99  (1906). 
6  Died  February  10,  1903. 


Bibliographical   Note 


XVll 


with  other  monographs,  into  a  volume  entitled  llislorischc 
Arbeiten,  vontehmlich  ziir  Rcjormationszeit,^  in  which,  quite 
in  the  spirit  of  that  scholar,  with  similar  thoroughness 
and  command  of  accessible  sources,  he  discussed  Calvin's 
journey  to  Italy  and  his  Genevan  work  to  1548.  On  this 
period  Cornelius  is  indispensable  to  the  student.^ 

The  year  of  the  publication  of  Cornelius's  discussions, 
1899,  witnessed  the  issue  of  the  first  volume  of  the  remark- 
able biographical  undertaking  which  is  to  constitute  a  mon- 
ument not  only  to  the  Genevan  reformer,  but  to  its  la- 
borious author.  Professor  Emile  Doumergue,  of  the  Theo- 
logical Faculty  of  Montauban.  Of  the  five  volumes  pro- 
posed, three  have  appeared, — the  second  in  1902  and  the 
third  in  the  closing  weeks  of  1905.  The  first  carries  Calvin 
to  the  publication  of  the  Institutes,  the  second  to  his  recall 
to  Geneva,  while  the  third  is  devoted  to  a  description  of  the 
city  and  of  his  home  and  surroundings.  No  such  elaborate 
biography  has  been  planned  of  any  other  leader  of  the  Ref- 
ormation as  this  entitled  Jean  Calvin:  les  hommes  et  les 
choses  de  son  iemps;^  and  its  beauty  and  interest  is  enhanced 
not  merely  by  abundant  photographic  reproductions,  but  by 
drawings  of  high  artistic  merit  by  Henri  Armand-Delille. 
In  elaborateness  of  discussion,  in  amplitude  of  treatment, 
it  leaves  little  to  be  desired.  The  most  conspicuous  criti- 
cism to  be  passed  upon  it  is  that  it  is  everywhere  a  defence 
of  its  subject.  Professor  Doumergue  is  above  all  a  wor- 
shipper of  his  hero,  but  a  very  painstaking  worshipper,  who 


^  Leipzig. 

2  Most  of  these  studies  were  first  published  in  the  Abhandluugen 
der  koniglichen  Akadeniie,  Munich,  1886-1895. 

3  Published  at  Lausanne.  The  size  is  a  quarto  almost  as  large  as 
a  sixteenth  century  folio.  The  first  volume  contains  648  pages;  the 
second,  829;   and  the  third,  734. 


xviii  Bibliographical  Note 

is  undoubtedly  led  into  occasional  exaggeration  by  his  en- 
thusiasm. His  critical  judgment  is  sometimes  impaired, 
also,  by  his  desire  to  win  the  utmost  of  biographical  result 
from  his  sources,  and  to  present  Calvin  in  the  most  favour- 
able light.  For  the  student  of  Calvin  the  work  is,  never- 
theless, of  much  value;  and  the  writer  can  but  express  his 
indebtedness  to  its  author  and  his  hope  that  the  labours 
now  so  far  advanced  may  be  carried  without  interruption 
to  their  intended  conclusion. 

A  brief  summary  of  Calvin's  work,  marked  by  deep  in- 
sight into  its  ruling  purposes  and  spiritual  significance,  is 
presented  in  the  chapter  by  Principal  Andrew  Martin  Fair- 
bairn  of  Mansfield  College,  Oxford,  entitled  Calvin  and  the 
Reformed  Church,  in  the  second  volume  of  The  Ca?nbridge 
Modern  History,  issued  in  1904.^ 

No  bibliographical  note,  however  limited,  would  be  com- 
plete without  mention  of  the  Bulletin  historique  et  litteraire 
issued  by  the  Societe  de  Vhistoire  du  Protestantisme  jrangais 
of  Paris,  now  under  the  efi&cient  management  of  Rev. 
Nathanael  Weiss,  and  in  the  fifty-fifth  year  of  its  publica- 
tion (1906).  Scattered  through  its  pages  may  be  found 
many  discussions,  documents,  and  reviews  of  high  value  to 
the  student  of  Calvin. 


Pp.  342-376,  London  and  New  York. 


JOHN    CALVIN 


CHAPTER  I 

Calvin's  spiritual  antecedents 

CAT.VTN  belongs  to  the  second  generation  of  the 
reformers.  His  place  chronologically,  and,  to  a 
large  extent,  theologically,  is  among  the  heirs  rather 
than  with  the  initiators  of  the  Reformation.  At  his 
birth  Luther  and  Zwingli  were  already  twenty-five  years 
of  age,  Melanchthon  was  about  to  take  up  a  student's 
career  at  the  University  of  Heidelberg,  and  Henry 
VIII.  had  just  begun  his  eventful  reign.  None  of  these 
leaders  had  entered,  indeed,  upon  his  reformator}- 
work;  but  the  thorough  development  of  the  Refor- 
mation in  Germany  and  in  German-speaking  Switzer- 
land was  achieved  before  Calvin  reached  the  activities 
of  manhood.  Yet,  in  spite  of  his  lateness  in  point  of 
time,  Calvin  must  be  ranked  among  the  most  influ- 
ential leaders  in  the  gigantic  struggle  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  He  could  not  have  done  his  work  had  not 
Luther  and  ZwingH  gone  before;  but  he  was  far  more 
than  a  builder  on  other  men's  foundations.  That 
work  had  its  antecedents  and  was  made  possible  by 
many  predisposing  influences.  A  brief  glance,  there- 
fore, at  the  state  of  the  land  in  which  Calvin  grew  to 
manhood  may  be  of  service  as  exhibiting  the  soil  and 
the  atmosphere  in  which  his  early  intellectual  and  re- 
ligious life  was  nurtured. 

The  kingdom  of  France,  at  the  beginning  of  the 


2  John    Calvin 

sixteenth  century,  had  many  claims  to  eminence  among 
the  states  of  Christendom.  In  consciousness  of  national 
unity,  in  efficiency  of  governmental  organisation,  and 
in  consequent  influence  on  the  politics  of  Europe,  it 
could  challenge  favourable  comparison  with  any  of  its 
contemporaries.  Not  so  world-wide  in  the  activities 
of  its  inhabitants  as  the  newly  significant  kingdom  of 
Spain,  then  feeling  the  fever  stimulus  of  the  great  dis- 
coveries which  marked  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
its  growth  was  more  natural,  soHd,  and  unforced  than 
that  of  its  portentous  southern  rival.  Though  the 
neighbouring  kingdom  of  England  could  show  the 
forms  at  least  of  more  popular  governmental  institu- 
tions, the  physical  strength  of  England  was  reckoned 
far  inferior  to  that  of  France.  The  great  Holy  Roman 
Empire,  rich  in  commerce,  cities,  and  soldiers,  was 
much  less  able  to  use  its  strength  than  France  by  reason 
of  its  divisions  and  its  lack  of  a  national  spirit.  Though 
far  from  having  attained  the  organic  development  of  a 
modem  state,  France,  in  the  early  sixteenth  century, 
was,  with  the  possible  exception  of  England,  the  most 
advanced  of  any  European  kingdom  on  the  road  toward 
modern  national  life. 

The  national  tendencies  characteristic  of  the  French 
monarchy  of  that  age  had  conspicuous  embodiment  in 
Francis  I.  (1515-1547),  contemporary  with  whom 
Calvin  was  to  do  the  formative  portion  of  his  work. 
A  ruler  of  unbounded  mihtary  ambition,  anxious  to 
win  for  France  the  post  of  highest  influence  in  Europe, 
his  personal  charm,  ready  wit,  eloquence,  tact,  and 
appreciation  of  scholarly  and  artistic  merit  gave  him 


Spiritual  Antecedents  3 

deserved  popularity.  His  social  talents  attracted  a 
splendid  court;  but  his  easy  morality  and  entire  want 
of  personal  religion  or  of  ethical  seriousness  unfitted 
him  to  appreciate  the  fundamental  significance  of  the 
gigantic  reHgious  struggle  which  convulsed  Europe 
during  his  reign.  France,  under  him,  had  an  aggressive, 
though  largely  unsuccessful,  mihtary  policy,  a  brilliant 
court,  and  a  high  degree  of  national  unity  and  internal 
prosperity. 

The  relations  between  the  French  Church  and  the 
monarchy  had  for  centuries  been  close  and  cordial  to 
a  degree  hardly  equalled  elsewhere  in  Europe.  Church 
and  King  had  aided  each  other  against  the  nobiHty. 
While  thoroughly  orthodox,  as  the  middle  ages  under- 
stood orthodoxy,  and  bitterly  opposed  to  "heretics"  at 
home  like  the  Cathari  and  Waldenses,  the  French 
Church  felt  a  greater  hostihty  toward  extreme  papal 
claims  than  was  general  in  other  branches  of  Western 
Christendom.  It  possessed  a  strong  sense  of  corporate 
unity,  and  of  national  or  "  GalHcan"  rights,  which  even 
the  Papacy  ought  not  to  infringe.  But  the  growing 
strength  of  the  crown  was  leading  to  increasing  control 
by  the  sovereigns  over  the  Church,  and  this  control  was 
decidedly  strengthened  when,  in  1516,  Francis  I.  and 
Leo  X.  entered  into  the  famous  Concordat.  The  King 
was  henceforth  to  nominate  to  the  higher  administra- 
tive and  monastic  posts  in  the  realm.  To  the  sovereign 
the  Concordat  brought  a  firmer  grasp  on  the  French 
Church;  to  the  Papacy  it  secured  an  increase  in  revenue. 
But  though  the  rights  of  the  Church  were  thus  in  a 
measure  sacrificed,  it  was  exempt  from  many  papal 


4  John  Calvin 

interferences  and  exactions  that  bore  heavily  on  other 
lands.  There  was  not,  therefore,  in  France  that 
popular  hatred  of  the  Roman  curia  which  was  so  wide- 
spread in  Germany  and  there  made  possible  the  rapid 
growth  of  the  Lutheran  revolt. 

It  would  be  an  error  to  suppose,  however,  that  the 
spiritual  state  of  the  French  Church  was  superior  to 
that  existing  in  lands  where  the  crown  enjoyed  less 
influence.  The  same  evils  of  externahsm  in  the  con- 
ception of  rehgion,  of  emphasis  on  acts  done,  penances 
performed,  pilgrimages  accomplished,  and  indulgences 
won,  rather  than  on  the  inward  state  of  the  soul  and  on 
the  ruhng  purpose  of  the  Hfe,  existed  in  France  that 
were  to  be  found  elsewhere  in  Latin  Christendom ;  and 
whatever  of  criticism  may  justly  be  passed  upon  the 
Roman  Church  of  this  period  as  a  whole  attaches  equally 
to  that  of  France.  The  growth  of  the  power  of  the 
monarchy  brought  far  less  aid  to  the  spiritual  interests 
of  the  French  Church  than  did  a  similar  increase  of 
royal  authority  south  of  the  Pyrenees  to  that  of  Spain, 
since  no  French  sovereign  of  the  fifteenth  or  sixteenth 
centuries  manifested  a  religious  zeal  comparable  with 
that  of  Isabella  of  Castile  or  even  with  that  of  the 
emperor,  Charles  V.  The  French  kings  enjoyed  the 
control  of  the  Church  which  their  share  in  the  appoint- 
ment of  its  prominent  officers  afforded.  They  appre- 
ciated its  possibihties  as  a  source  of  revenue.  They 
were  ready  enough  to  oppose  changes  which  would  in 
any  serious  way  alter  a  fabric  so  useful  to  them.  But 
they  gave  to  political  considerations  the  chief  weight  in 
ecclesiastical  appointments;   and  the  great  evils  of  the 


Spiritual  Antecedents  5 

possession  of  olTicc  by  the  morally  unlit  and  the  heaping 
up  of  benefices  in  the  hands  of  favourites,'  who,  however 
well  intentioned,  could  give  them  no  adequate  spiritual 
care,  continued  to  flourish  unrelieved  by  any  counter- 
acting influence  from  the  throne.  France,  as  a  whole, 
seems  to  have  been  fairly  well  content  with  its  religious 
situation  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
and,  as  compared  with  Germany  or  Spain,  its  sense  of 
the  need  of  betterment  was  undeveloped. 

Foremost  among  the  intellectual  forces  of  France 
was  still  to  be  placed  the  University  of  Paris.  That 
eminent  seat  of  mediaeval  learning,  to  which  all  other 
universities  of  northern  Europe  looked  up  as  their 
archetype,  had  enjoyed  high  academic  fame  since  the 
beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century.  Within  its  walls 
Aquinas,  Bonaventura,  Duns  Scotus,  William  of 
Occam,  d'Ailli,  and  Gerson  had  taught.  Its  repute  as 
a  centre  of  theologic  instruction  had,  indeed,  been 
considerably  dimmed  by  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 


I  Henry  C.  Lea,  in  The  Cambridge  Modern  History,  i.  659,  gives  a 
striking  instance  of  pluralism  contemporary  with  Calvin's  life.  Jean, 
son  of  Duke  Rene  II.  of  Lorraine,  was  born  in  1498.  In  1508,  he 
entered  into  possession  of  the  revenues  of  the  bishopric  of  Metz;  15 17 
saw  him  bishop  of  Toul;  15 18  brought  the  addition  of  Terouanne; 
1521  added  Valence  and  Die;  1523  Verdun.  In  1524,  he  became 
archbishop  of  Narbonne.  The  year  1533  added  the  archbishopric 
Reims  and  made  him  primate  of  France.  In  1536  he  became  bishop 
of  Alby,  and  the  next  year  archbishop  of  Lyons.  He  then  gained 
the  bishoprics  of  M^con,  Agcn,  and  Nantes.  Several  of  these  posts 
he  resigned  to  relatives;  but  many  he  continued  to  hold  till  his  death 
in  1550.  And,  in  addition,  he  was  in  possession  of  the  "abbeys  of 
Gorze,  Fecamp,  Cluny,  Marmoutiers,  St.  Ouen,  St.  Jean  de  Laon, 
St.  Germer,  St.  Medard  of  Soissons,  and  St.  Mansuy  of  Toul." 


6  John  Calvin 

century,  but  was  still  great.  Its  theological  faculty, 
known  popularly  as  the  Sorbonne,  from  the  large 
concentration  of  its  instructors  in  the  College  founded 
in  1253  by  Robert  de  Sorbon,  regarded  itself,  and 
was  widely  reputed,  of  unimpeachable  orthodoxy.  Nor 
was  it  wanting  in  courage  and  independence.  Its  op- 
position to  the  Concordat,  as  recently  as  15 16,  bore 
witness  to  the  jealous  concern  of  the  University  for  the 
liberties  of  the  French  Church.  But  it  was,  nevertheless, 
on  the  whole  a  hindrance  to  progress.  It  stood  strongly 
opposed  to  innovations  in  learning  or  in  doctrine.  Not 
that  it  wholly  neglected  the  new  learning  that  was 
crossing  the  Alps  from  Italy.  Greek  had  been  taught 
within  its  walls,  though  for  a  brief  period,  as  early  as 
1458.  In  1508,  new  interest  in  the  Attic  tongue  had 
been  awakened  by  the  coming  of  Girolamo  Aleandro, 
afterwards  famous  as  an  opponent  of  Luther  at  Worms. 
But,  in  spite  of  this  measure  of  approval,  the  friends  of 
classic  studies  felt  that  the  University  was  hostile  to 
them,  that  its  dominant  spirit  was  scholastic,  and  its 
methods  antiquated.  Its  leaders  looked  upon  Greek 
as  the  ''language  of  heresies,"  and  they  condemned 
the  teachings  of  Luther  in  terms  of  the  utmost  abhor- 
rence.^ 

Yet,  in  the  early  years  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the 
new  learning  was  rapidly  winning  its  way  in  France. 
In  1507,  the  printing  of  books  in  Greek  was  begun  in 


I  See  the  letters  of  Henri  Lorit  and  Valetin  Tschudi  in  A.  L. 
Herminjard,  Correspondance  des  reformateurs  dmis  les  pays  de  langtie 
franfaise,  i.  31,  38;  Abel  Lefranc,  Hisioire  du  College  de  France^  pp. 
60-63,  68. 


spiritual  Antecedents  7 

Paris,  and  two  years  later  the  leader  of  native  French 
Humanists,  Jacques  Le  F^vre,  already  famed  for  his 
studies  on  Aristotle  and  in  mathematics,  pubHshed  his 
exposition  of  the  Psalms  which  Luther  was  to  use 
in  his  early  years  of  teaching  at  Wittenberg.  Among 
many  distinguished  pupils  of  Le  Fevre,  none  was  more 
eminent  for  scholarship  than  Guillaume  Bude,  whose 
Commentary  on  the  Greek  Language,  of  1529,  gave  him 
a  European  fame.  To  Budc's  influence  with  Francis 
I.  was  due  the  estabhshment,  in  1530,  of  the  Royal 
Lecturers  {Lecteurs  royaux),  at  Paris,  to  give  instruction 
in  Greek,  Hebrew,  and  mathematics,  wholly  in  the 
spirit  of  the  Renaissance,  and  with  a  zeal  for  the  new 
learning  that  roused  the  hostiUty  of  the  Sorbonne. 
From  this  royal  foundation  the  College  de  France  was 
to  grow.  Indeed,  under  the  reign  of  Francis  L,  the 
new  learning  had  become  distinctly  fashionable.  The 
King  was  conspicuously  its  supporter,  and  the  roll  of 
scholars,  architects,  and  artists  who  found  in  him  a 
patron  is  an  ornament  to  his  reign.  Even  more  com- 
mitted to  the  support  of  Renaissance  men  and  methods 
was  Francis's  elder  sister,  Marguerite  d'Angouleme, 
whose  increasing  UberaHsm  was  ultimately  to  carry  her 
into  real,  though  not  publicly  announced,  sympathy 
with  Protestantism.^  In  Marguerite  men  of  Hberal 
ideas,  generally,  had  a  determined  defender;  and  she 
afforded  to  many  efficient  protection,  especially  after 
her  marriage,  in  1527,  to  Henri  d'Albret,  King  of 
Navarre,  had  put  her  at  the  head  of  a  Httle  court  at 


^  Abel  Lefranc,  Les  idees  religieuses  de  Margiieriie  de  Navarre, 
Paris,  1898,  p.  123. 


8  John  Calvin 

Nerac.  With  Francis,  however,  support  of  the  new 
learning  was  based  on  admiration  for  humanistic 
scholarship  rather  than  on  conviction,  and  it  ceased 
whenever  the  new  leaven  threatened  the  constitution 
or  the  doctrine  of  an  organisation  so  useful  to  the  French 
monarchy  from  a  pohtical  and  financial  point  of  view 
as  the  French  Church. 

It  was  true  in  France,  as  elsewhere  in  Europe,  that 
the  new  learning  was  leading  to  criticism  of  the  existing 
state  of  the  Church.  From  its  standpoint  the  Sorbonne 
was  amply  justified  in  its  opposition.  The  spirit  of 
the  Renaissance  was  that  of  a  return  from  the  scholar- 
ship of  the  later  mediaeval  period  to  the  sources.  Begun 
with  a  revived  interest  in  the  writers  of  classical  an- 
tiquity, it  soon  led  men  to  investigate  anew  the  sources 
of  rehgious  truth,  and  to  go  back  of  d'AilH,  Occam, 
Scotus,  and  Aquinas,  to  Augustine,  and,  even  further, 
to  the  New  Testament.  The  attempted  return  did  not 
usually  involve  any  hostile  intention  toward  the  es- 
tabhshed  Church.  Men  Hke  Erasmus,  Ximenes,  or 
ReuchHn  beheved  that  sound  learning,  the  study  of  the 
Scriptures  and  of  the  Fathers,  and  earnest  opposition  to 
the  superstition,  ignorance,  and  maladministration 
rampant  in  the  Church  would  effect  all  that  was  neces- 
sary for  its  betterment.  They  had  no  wish  for  revolu^ 
tion.  In  France  this  humanistic  spirit  of  reform  had 
its  conspicuous  embodiment  in  Le  Fevre,  who,  both 
by  reason  of  his  own  services  to  the  cause  of  rehgious 
awakening  and  the  disciples  whom  he  aroused  to  similar 
or  even  greater  zeal,  deserved  the  first  place  among 
the    religious  leaders  of    his    native    countr}^  in  the 


Spiritual  Antecedents  g 

generation  that  preceded  Calvin,  anrl  prepared  the  way 
for  Calvin's  more  positive  work. 

Bom  at  Etaples  in  Picardy  about  the  middle  of  the 
fifteenth  century,^  Jacques  Le  Fevre  was  early  attracted 
to  Paris,  where  he  learned  Greek  of  a  fugitive  from 
Sparta,  George  Hermonymus.  A  journey  to  Italy,  in 
1488-1489,  quickened  his  humanistic  zeal,  and  his  re- 
ligious spirit  was  no  less  manifest  in  a  sympathy  with 
the  mystical  type  of  piety.  A  little  man,  modest, 
kindly,  gentle,  of  a  life  that  did  honour  to  his  priestly 
vows,  he  won  friendship  by  his  personal  quahties  as 
much  as  he  attracted  admiration  by  his  zeal  for  scholar- 
ship. His  disciples  were  destined  to  the  most  various 
parts  in  the  Reformation  struggle;  but  they  seem  to 
have  held  him  in  singular  affection.  Among  those  who 
honoured  him  as  their  teacher  were  Guillaume  Bri- 
jonnet,  sprung  from  one  of  the  eminent  noble  houses  of 
France,  and  to  be  bishop  of  Meaux;  Guillaume  Bude, 
instrumental,  as  has  been  seen,  in  the  estabHshment 
of  the  Royal  Lecturers;  Francois  Vatable,  one  of  the 
first  teachers  of  Hebrew  on  that  foundation  and  to 
be  Calvin's  instructor;  Gerard  Roussel,  the  later 
confessor  of  Marguerite  d'Angouleme,  and  bishop  of 
Oloron,  for  a  time  Calvin's  friend;  Louis  de  Berquin, 
destined  to  die  at  the  stake  for  his  Protestant  faith; 
and    Guillaume   Farel,    to   be   the   fiery   preacher   of 

I  The  usual  and  more  probable  date  is  "about  1455,"  e.g.  G. 
Bonet-Maury  in  Hauck's  Realencyklopddie  jilr  protestantisclie  Theo- 
logie,  V.  714;  but  Professor  E.  Doumergue,  Jean  Calvin,  les  homines 
et  les  choses  de  son  temps,  Lausanne,  1899,  seq.,  i.  539-541,  has  an 
interesting  argument  favouring  the  conclusion  that  at  his  death,  in 
1536,  he  was  100  years  old. 


lo  John  Calvin 

Evangelical  doctrines  in  French  Switzerland,  and 
Calvin's  intimate  associate. 

It  was  by  reason  of  Brifonnet's  appointment  as  abbot 
of  the  great  Parisian  monastery  of  St.  Germain-des- 
Pres,  in  1507,  that  Le  Fevre  came  to  make  that  rehgious 
foundation  his  home  for  the  next  thirteen  years. 
There,  aided  by  its  noble  library,  he  turned  to  the  study 
of  the  Bible  in  a  singularly  fresh  spirit.  In  1 512,  he 
pubHshed  a  Latin  translation  of  and  commentary  upon 
Paul's  Epistles  which  shows  clearly  the  development  of 
his  thought.  Le  Fevre  did  not  break  with  the  Roman 
Church  as  an  organisation, — that  he  never  did.  He  still 
held  to  many  of  its  characteristic  doctrines.  Yet,  five 
years  before  Luther's  theses,  he  had  come  to  deny  the 
justifying  merit  of  good  works,  to  hold  salvation  to  be 
a  free  gift  from  God,  to  doubt  the  doctrine  of  tran- 
substantiation,  and  to  imply  a  belief  in  the  sole  authority 
of  the  Scriptures.^  But  these  assertions,  though  clear, 
were  the  utterances  of  a  quiet,  scholarly  mystic,  who 
saw  no  incongruity  between  his  views  and  a  cordial 
support  of  the  Church  as  it  then  existed;  and  it  is  no 
wonder  that  few  perceived  what  he  failed  to  see.  His 
book  made  no  sensation ;  and  he  continued  his  peaceful 
career,  holding  with  ever-increasing  firmness  the  affec- 
tion of  his  friends  and  pupils,  and  gaining,  through  the 
good  offices  of  Bri^onnet,  the  regard  of  Francis  I.  and 
of  Marguerite. 

Meanwhile  Luther  was  beginning  his  reformatory 


I  For  discussions,  from  somewhat  divergent  points  of  view,  of 
the  extent  of  Le  Fevre's  Protestantism,  see  Herminjard,  Correspond- 
ence, i.  239;  and  Doumergue,  Jean  Calvin,  i.  81-86,  542-551. 


Spiritual  Antecedents  n 

work  in  Germany,  and,  by  1519,  that  land  was  filled 
with  the  noise  of  the  battle.  His  books  soon  reached 
France.  The  Sorbonne,  under  the  lead  of  its  syndic, 
Noel  B^da,  condemned  his  views  in  April,  1521.  Criti- 
cisms of  the  Church  which  had  passed  well-nigh  un- 
noticed now  appeared  dangerously  "Lutheran."  Le 
Fcvre  himself  came  under  suspicion.  In  1 5 1 7  and  1 5 18, 
he  had  put  forth  a  scholarly  study  denying  the  identity 
of  Mary  Magdalene  with  Mary,  the  sister  of  Lazarus 
and  the  Mary  who  anointed  the  Saviour's  feet.  In  it- 
self, this  might  seem  an  academic  question;  but  it 
denied  the  current  teachings  of  the  Church,  it  practically 
asserted  the  right  of  private  Biblical  interpretation, 
and  it  was  an  invasion  by  one  who  was  only  a  master 
of  arts  of  a  field  thought  to  be  fittingly  open  only  to  a 
doctor  of  theology.  Under  the  suspicion  which  the 
rise  of  Luther  had  instilled,  Le  Fevre  was  now  attacked 
by  Beda,  and  his  opinion  on  the  problem  of  the  Marys 
was  condemned  by  the  Sorbonne  about  seven  months 
after  it  had  denounced  the  Saxon  reformer. 

About  a  year  before  the  condemnation  of  his  book, 
however,  Le  Fevre  had  left  Paris  for  the  friendly  home 
of  Brifonnet,  who,  since  15 16,  had  been  bishop  of 
Meaux.  The  bishop  was  a  worthy  disciple  of  Le 
Fevre  in  purpose.  He  saw  the  need  of  reform,  and  held 
the  humanistic  belief  that  a  return  to  the  sources — 
the  study  of  the  Bible  and  the  preaching  of  Biblical 
truth — would  right  the  evils  of  the  Church.  He  per- 
ceived no  need  of  revolution,  nor  did  he,  any  more  than 
Le  Fevre,  grasp  the  seriousness  of  the  situation.  But 
he  was  willing  to  do  much  more  than  most  humanists 


12  John  Calvin 

to  use  the  remedies  in  which  he  believed;  and  in  his 
reformatoiy  convictions  and  his  efforts  ahke,  he  had  the 
powerful  sympathy  of  Marguerite.  He  now  began 
the  work  in  earnest.  Under  his  encouragement  and 
that  of  Marguerite,  Le  Fevre  pubhshed,  in  1523,  a 
translation  of  the  New  Testament  which  grew  by  1530 
to  a  version  of  the  whole  Bible.  This  was,  indeed,  far 
from  being  the  first  translation  of  the  Scriptures  to  be 
made  or  printed  in  France;  but  those  that  had  gone 
before  had  been  marked  by  the  abbreviations  and 
modifications  popular  in  the  middle  ages.  Le  Fevre 
now  gave  a  careful  version  of  the  Vulgate,  enriched  here 
and  there  by  comparison  with  the  Greek. ^  Though  in 
no  sense  a  great  translation,  Le  Fevre 's  work  undoubt- 
edly furthered  extensive  reading  of  the  Scriptures  in 
France. 

Brifonnet  was  inaugurating,  meanwhile,  an  active 
campaign  of  preaching  in  his  diocese,  aided  by  Roussel, 
Vatable,  Farel,  and  Michel  d'Arande,  all  of  whom  had 
caught  their  inspiration  from  Le  Fevre;  but  he  soon 
found  himself  in  great  difficulties.  By  the  champions 
of  the  existing  order  he  was  looked  upon  as  Httle  better 
than  a  Lutheran.  On  the  other  hand,  the  new  preach- 
ing could  not  be  confined  to  simple  expositions  of  the 
Scriptures.  The  humanistic  reformatory  course  was 
one  almost  impossible  to  hold  in  practice,  save  as  an 
individual  attitude.  Farel  inveighed  against  the  Papacy, 


I  Reuss  and  Berger  in  Hauck,  Realencyklopddie,  iii.  1 26-131  ; 
Doumergue,  i.  98;  The  Cambridge  Modern  History ^  ii.  283.  The 
New  Testament  had  been  printed  in  French  at  Lyons  about  1477; 
and  the  whole  Bible,  modified  as  above  mentioned,  at  Paris  about 
ten  years  later. 


z     ~ 

o    = 


^  - 


_l   .- 

<    i 

a:    -z 


Spiritual  Antecedents  13 

and  was  probably  dismissed  l)y  Brii^onnct  in  1523. 
But  iconoclastic  acts,  wholly  distasteful  to  Jki^onnet, 
Roussel,  and  most  of  his  friends,  soon  occurred.  In 
December,  1524,  Jean  Lc  Clerc,  a  wool-carder  of 
Meaux,  tore  a  copy  of  a  papal  bull  from  the  cathedral 
door  and  affixed  instead  a  declaration  that  the  Pope 
was  Antichrist.'  Bri^onnet  denounced  the  acts  of  Le 
Clerc  and  his  possible  associates  in  January,  1525;'' 
but  the  political  situation  soon  made  his  position  im- 
possible. The  great  defeat  of  the  French  at  Pavia, 
in  February,  was  followed  by  the  captivity  of  the  King 
in  Spain,  whither  Marguerite  went  to  join  him  in  Au- 
gust. The  Parlcment  of  Paris  was  now  able  to  oppose 
Brifonnet  unhindered.  His  preachers  were  forbidden 
and  Lc  Fevre's  translations  ordered  burned. 

Brifonnet  felt  that  the  situation  was  beyond  his  so- 
lution. He  was  not  a  man  of  the  highest  courage; 
but  had  he  been  more  daring  than  he  was  he  might 
well  have  thought  that  his  mild  reformatory  efforts 
had  resulted  in  attempts  more  revolutionary  than  he 
anticipated  or  rehshed.  He  now  issued,  on  October 
15,  1525,  two  synodical  decrees^  condemning  Luther's 
doctrines  and  books  and  deploring  the  ''abuses  of  the 
Gospel"  by  those  who  denied  purgatory  and  rejected 
prayers  to  the  saints.  His  reformator)^  work  at  Meaux 
was  over.     The  same  month  Le  Fevre  and  Roussel 


^  He  was  whipped  and  branded  at  Paris.     On  July  22,  1525,  he 
was  bvirned  at  Metz  for  the  destruction  of  a  shrine. 

2  Letter  to  the  clergy  of  Meaux,  Herminjard,  i.  320. 

3  Herminjard,  i.   153,  where  they  are  dated    1523,  though  with 
hesitation.     On  the  true  date  see  Doumergue,  i.  no. 


14  John  Calvin 

were  compelled  to  fly  for  safety  to  Strassburg;  but 
Brifonnet  himself  continued  in  possession  of  his  office 
till  his  death  in  1534.  Fortunately  the  royal  favour 
followed  the  fugitives.  On  his  return  from  Madrid, 
in  1526,  Francis  recalled  them.  To  Le  Fevre  he  gave 
the  post  of  teacher  to  his  children  and  librarian  of  the 
Chateau  of  Blois.  Here  the  aged  scholar  laboured  on 
his  translation  of  the  Bible ;  but  the  growing  tension  of 
the  ecclesiastical  situation  led  the  ever-kindly  Mar- 
guerite to  effect  his  transfer  to  the  safety  of  her  court 
at  Nerac  in  1530,  and  there  Le  Fevre  died  six  years 
later.  Roussel  did  further  work  as  a  reformatory 
preacher  in  France,  and,  as  will  be  seen,  influenced 
Calvin  at  a  crisis  in  that  reformer's  history;  but  he 
was  even  more  of  a  mystic  quietist  than  Le  Fevre. 
Like  Le  Fevre  and  Brifonnet,  he  saw  the  need  of 
reform,  without  desiring  or  appreciating  the  necessity 
of  revolution,  or  being  wilUng  to  pay  the  cost."  Aided 
by  Marguerite,  he  accepted  the  bishopric  of  Oloron, 
and  died  about  1552,  in  good  repute  for  fidelity  in  the 
spiritual  administration  of  his  diocese. 

Yet  if  Le  Fevre,  Brifonnet,  and  Roussel  were  thus 
disposed  only  to  a  humanistic  type  of  reform  that  did 
not  break  with  Rome,  and  proved  inadequate  to  the 
struggle,  there  were  those  who  entered  into  the  spirit 
of  the  German  revolt  and  wished  to  effect  a  similar 
revolution  in  France.  Most  of  these  radical  reformers 
were  from  the  mercantile  and  wage-earning  classes;  but 
a  few  men  of  learning  and  rank  were  to  be  found  among 


I  Letter  to  Farel,  August  24,  1524,  Herminjard,  i.  271. 


Spiritual  Antecedents  15 

them.  Of  Lc  Fevrc's  stormy  pupil,  Guillaumc  J'^arii, 
something  has  ah-cady  been  said,  and  there  will  Ijc 
abundant  occasion  to  speak  further  of  him  in  this 
narrative.  The  most  eminent  in  station  among  the 
early  uncompromising  reformers  of  France  was  Louis 
de  Berquin,  a  noble  of  Artois,  and,  like  Farel,  a  disciple 
of  Le  Fevre.  A  man  of  dignified  bearing,  scholarly 
attainments,  and  high  character,  Berquin  won  the 
friendship  of  Marguerite  and  Francis  L,  and  became 
a  member  of  the  royal  council.  A  Httle  later  he  gained 
the  rather  timid  regard  of  Erasmus.'  A  translator  of 
Erasmus  and  Luther,  and  himself  a  writer  in  favour 
of  reform,  he  was  an  object  of  attack  from  1523  on- 
ward ;  but  was  at  first  saved  by  the  friendship  of  Mar- 
guerite and  of  her  royal  brother.  That  favour  Francis 
I.  failed  to  extend  to  Berquin  at  last,  probably  because 
he  became  convinced  that  Berquin's  attack  on  so  useful 
an  institution  as  the  crown  found  the  French  Church 
to  be  was  too  serious;  but  his  end  came  in  death  by 
fire  on  April  16,  1529,  on  condemnation  by  the  Parle- 
ment  of  Paris, — a  sentence  hastily  passed  and  executed 
to  prevent  possible  interference  by  the  King.  When  a 
nobleman  of  such  connections  and  influence  was  thus 
made  to  suffer,  it  was  evident  that  scant  mercy  could 
be  expected  from  the  French  courts  by  heretics  of  low^r 
social  rank.  In  the  death  of  Berquin  French  Protestant- 
ism of  the  thorough-going  type  lost  its  most  conspicuous 
representative.     Yet  he  cannot  be  called  a  leader.     He 


^  His  story  is  well  told  by  H.  M.  Baird,  History  of  the  Rise  of  tJie 
Huguenots,  i.  chap.  iv.     For  Erasmus's  estimate,  see  Herminjard,  ii. 


i6  John  Calvin 

was  no  organiser.  He  seems  to  have  had  little  mission- 
ary force.  He  fought  largely  alone;  and  he  left  the 
reform  movement  little  stronger  save  for  the  courage 
of  his  example. 

The  vast  majority  of  the  radical  reformers  of  France 
were,  however,  from  the  humbler  walks  of  Hfe,  and  their 
conduct  in  many  instances  was  such  as  to  exasperate 
rather  than  attract.  Iconoclastic  excesses,  such  as  had 
been  exhibited  at  Aleaux,  were  repeated  in  many  places, 
notably  at  Paris  in  1528.  The  Gallic  spirit  is  more 
impulsive  than  the  German,  and  though  iconoclasm 
was  common  enough  in  many  lands  during  the  Refor- 
mation age,  it  showed  its  injudicious,  aggravating  face 
nowhere  more  plainly  than  in  France,  where  the  image- 
breakers,  instead  of  representing,  as  in  some  lands,  a 
popular  revolution,  were  but  a  handful  as  yet  among  a 
hostile  and  angered  population. 

By  1530,  the  French  reform  movement,  in  both  its 
types,  was  slowly  and  somewhat  irregularly  growing. 
Its  humanistic  form  appealed  to  men  of  culture.  Where 
the  new  learning  had  penetrated,  in  the  court  and  among 
student  circles,  there  was  not  a  little  sympathy  with  such 
efforts  as  Le  Fevre  had  led.  A  critical  attitude  toward 
mediaeval  doctrines  and  practices,  that  yet  did  not  break 
with  Rome,  was  extensive,  especially  among  the  younger 
race  of  scholars.  The  radicals  found  Httle  sympathy 
among  the  humanistic  reformers.  If  the  latter  were 
inadequate  to  their  task,  the  former  were  as  yet  in- 
capable of  widely  commending  their  cause.  The  great 
lack  of  the  French  reformatory  movement  was  a  leader 
whose  controlling  mind  could  knit  its  scattered  and 


spiritual   Antecedents  17 

divergent  forces.  Such  a  leader  must  appeal  to  the 
world  of  scholarship,  and  yet  go  further  in  opposition 
to  Rome  than  the  humanists  had  done.  He  must  be 
as  firm  as  the  radicals  in  hostility  to  the  Papacy,  and 
yet  be  able  to  show  that  iconoclastic  excesses  were 
incidental,  not  characteristic.  He  must  present  a  type 
of  theology  congenial  to  non- German  religious  thought. 
Such  a  leader  it  was  to  fmd  for  the  first  time  in  Calvin. 
That  the  intellectually  and  poUtically  divided  forces 
opposed  to  Rome,  or  to  Roman  abuses,  not  merely  in 
France,  but  ultimately  in  Switzerland,  the  Netherlands, 
Scotland,  and  to  a  large  degree  in  England,  also,  were 
knit  into  spiritual  unity ;  that  the  theology  of  the  Refor- 
mation was  given  an  interpretation  congenial  to  the 
non- German  mind;  and  that  a  great  type  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal organisation  was  developed  in  which  the  churchly 
■independence  characteristic  of  Romanism,  but  for- 
feited by  most  of  the  reformers,  was  preserved,  and 
combined  with  a  lay  participation  in  church  govern- 
ment unknown  to  the  Latin  Church,  were  to  be  the 
results  of  his  work. 


CHAPTER  II 

CHILDHOOD   AND  EARLY   STUDENT  DAYS 

h  I  ^VHE  venerable  episcopal  city  of  Noyon  lies  on  the 
JL  little  river  Verse,  about  a  mile  above  the  en- 
trance of  that  short- coursed  tributary  into  the  much 
larger  Oise,  and  some  fifty-eight  miles  to  the  north- 
northeast  of  Paris.  Its  situation  is  one  of  no  marked 
strength  to  resist  mihtary  attack  under  the  conditions 
of  mediaeval  and  even  of  sixteenth  century  warfare ;  but 
its  chief  natural  advantage  has  always  been  the  great 
fertility  of  the  surrounding  soil.  Never  a  place  of 
large  population,^  it  has  yet  had  a  distinctive  character. 
First  known  as  a  station  on  the  Roman  road  from 
Reims  to  Amiens,^  probably  in  the  fourth  century  of  our 
era,  it  gained  ecclesiastical  distinction  when,  about  the 
year  531,  St.  Medard  transferred  his  see  thither  from 
the  town  which  was  afterwards  to  be  known  as  Saint- 
Quentin,  and  inaugurated  a  succession  of  bishops  that 
continued  at  Noyon  till  the  French  Revolution  brought 
it  to  an  end.  The  significance  of  the  city  in  the  eighth 
century  is  attested  by  the  coronation  there,  in  768, 
of  Charlemagne  as  joint  king  of  the  Franks;  and 
it  is    almost  certain  that  Noyon  beheld  the   similar 


^  At  present  7443  inhabitants. 

*  Many  of  the  facts  in  this  paragraph  are  due  to  Abel  Lefranc's 
Jlistoire  de  la  ville  de  Noyon,  Paris,  1887,  and  to  Doumergue's  Jean 
Calvin,  vol.  i. 

18 


[1509-1527]      Early  Student  Days  19 

consecration  to  royal  office  of  Hugh,  the  first  sovereign  of 
the  Capetian  Hnc,  in  987.  The  political  developments 
of  the  twelfth  century  brought  about  the  comparatively 
peaceful  organisation  of  its  citizens  into  a  commune, 
in  1 1 08  or  1 1 09;  but  by  the  end  of  the  next  century, 
the  power  thus  obtained  had  largely  slipped  from  the 
grasp  of  the  burghers,  and  authority  had  either  been 
regained  by  the  ecclesiastics,  or  passed  into  the  hands  of 
officers  representing  the  rapidly  growing  might  of  the 
King.  The  commune  persisted  in  name,  however; 
and  in  the  time  of  Calvin  still  chose  burghers  to  its 
fellowship,  and  elected  a  mayor  and  councillors,  to 
whom  some  vestiges  of  authority  still  clung. 

In  the  early  years  of  the  sixteenth  century,  as  through- 
out the  middle  ages,  Noyon  presented  the  aspect  of  a 
very  clerical  tovm.  The  absence  of  any  considerable 
trade  or  manufacture,  which  then  even  more  than  now 
marked  the  Httle  city,  left  the  field  the  more  open  for 
the  development  of  its  ecclesiastical  interests,  and  the 
architectural  evidences  of  this  priestly  dominance  give 
a  distinct  quahty  to  the  appearance  of  Noyon  even  at 
the  present  day,  when  the  bishopric  that  there  had  its 
see  has  ceased  for  more  than  a  century.  Its  dignified 
though  rather  heavy  and  sombre  cathedral,  built  during 
the  middle  decades  of  the  twelfth  century,  combines 
the  strength  of  Romanesque  architecture  with  some  of 
the  graces  of  the  Gothic  style  which  was  then  just  de- 
veloping in  the  region.  It  yet  stands  a  witness  to  the 
zeal  and  sacrifice  of  those  who  erected  it.  But,  besides 
this  imposing  monument  of  mediaeval  piety,  Noyon  still 
preserves  a  graceful  thirteenth  century  Chapter-house 


20 


John  Calvin  [1509- 


wherein  the  canons  of  the  cathedral  once  transacted 
their  business;  while  the  library,  of  sixteenth  century 
construction,  and  still  remaining  fragments  of  the 
bishop's  house,  attest  the  now  vanished  dignity  of  its 
prelates.  That  secular  rights  were  not  utterly  forgotten 
is  evidenced  by  the  quaint  Renaissance  City  Hall,  built 
in  i486,  and  on  which,  as  upon  the  other  structures  of 
which  mention  has  been  made,  Calvin's  eyes  must  often 
have  rested. 

In  the  sixteenth  century,  Noyon's  most  conspicuous 
resident  was  its  bishop,  by  office  one  of  the  twelve  peers 
of  France,  and  in  his  dual  capacity  as  count  and  spirit- 
ual lord  the  largest  landed  proprietor  of  the  region. 
The  occupant  of  this  honoured  post  from  1 501  to  1525, 
and  therefore  during  Calvin's  boyhood,  was  Charles 
de  Hangest,^  sprung  from  a  family  eminent  among  the 
nobles  of  Picardy.  His  successor  was  his  nephew,  Jean, 
whose  episcopate  of  fifty-two  years  extended  beyond 
Calvin's  death,  and  whose  stormy  nature  involved  him 
in  quarrels  with  his  chapter  over  so  trifling  a  matter 
as  his  right  to  wear  a  beard;  while  his  indifference  to 
the  religious  questions  of  the  day  laid  his  soundness  in 
the  faith  open  to  suspicion.^  Rivalries  were,  indeed, 
far  from  uncommon  between  the  bishops  at  Noyon  and 
the  fifty- seven  canons  who  constituted  its  assertive  and 
tenancious  chapter, — a  body  possessed  of  much  landed 
property  and  ancient  rights,  and  able  to  contend  for 
its    claims    oftentimes    on    equal    and    sometimes    on 


1  On  the  family  of  Hangest  see  A.  Lefranc,  La  jeunesse  de  Calvin, 
Paris,  1888,  p.  186;   and  Doumergue,  i.  536. 

2  Doumergue,  i.  18. 


1527]  Early  Student  Days  21 

superior  terms.  And,  besides  these  two  ecclesiastical 
powers  that  centred  round  the  cathedral,  Noyon  was 
marked  by  its  parish  churches,  its  well-endowed  mo- 
nastic establishments,  and  other  abundant  evidences 
of  the  presence  and  importance  of  churchly  interests. 
Education,  moreover,  had  been  remembered;  and 
Noyon  possessed  an  ancient  school  founded  by  Canon 
Robert  Lefevre  in  1294,^  of  which  Calvin  was  himself 
to  be  a  pupil,  nicknamed  that  of  the  Capettes,  from  the 
dress  which  distinguished  its  beneficiaries.  Altogether, 
judged  by  sixteenth  century  standards,  Noyon  must 
have  been  a  pleasant  place  in  which  to  live  for  those 
in  the  service  of  the  Church  or  laymen  not  dependent 
on  a  trade.  It  had  its  own  local  interests  and  debates, 
besides  the  questions  that  forced  their  way  in  from  the 
great  world  outside.  Its  proportion  of  men  of  some 
education  and  of  assured  position  must  have  been 
large.  Even  if  its  controversies  were  often  petty,  they 
must  have  stimulated  intelligence. 

Geographically,  Noyon  belonged  to  Picardy,  and  its 
inhabitants  exhibited  the  characteristics  of  the  Picard 
race.  Eager,  controversial  even  to  fanaticism,  enthu- 
siastic, dogmatic,  and  persistent,  they  have  fought  on 
all  sides  in  the  controversies  by  which  France  has  been 
divided,  but  have  never  been  lukewarm  or  indifferent. 
They  are  capable  of  producing  men  of  leadership  and 
ready  to  carry  principles  to  logical  consequences.  A 
territory  that  has  given  birth  to  Peter  the  Hermit,  the 
philosophers  Roscelin  and  Ramus,  and  the  revolutionists 
Desmoulins  and  Baboeuf,  to  mention  no  others,  was  a 


Lefranc,  Jeiinesse,  p.  12. 


22 


John  Calvin  [1509- 


land  where  the  reformatory  ideas  of  the  early  sixteenth 
century  could  not  fail  to  find  response ; '  and  Picardy 
contributed  significant  names,  besides  that  of  Calvin,  to 
the  list  of  French  reHgious  reformers.  Le  Fevre,  Olive- 
tan,  Roussel,  and  Vatable  were  among  its  sons.  It 
was  then  true,  as  an  eleventh  century  bishop  of  Noyon  ^ 
had  declared  of  the  land  in  his  day,  that  it  was  a  "  coun- 
try fertile  in  warriors  and  in  servants  of  God." 

The  family  of  which  Calvin  was  to  come  was  one 
rising  in  worldly  success  and  in  the  social  scale  during 
the  closing  years  of  the  fifteenth  century.  Its  roots  did 
not  run  back  to  Noyon  itself,  but  to  the  little  neigh- 
bouring village  of  Pont-l'Eveque,  where  the  Cauvins — 
for  so  they  spoke  the  name — had  long  had  their  home, 
and  whence  they  went  forth  to  the  exercise  of  their  an- 
cestral occupation  as  boatmen  on  the  Oise.^  Calvin's 
grandfather,  whose  Christian  name  seems  not  to  have 
been  preserved,  is  said  to  have  added  the  cooper's  trade 
to  that  of  riverman ;  ^  or  possibly  he  may  have  under- 
taken the  more  sedentary  occupation  when  years  coun- 
selled a  Hfe  of  less  exposure  than  that  on  the  water.  But 
his  sons,  of  whom  it  seems  uncertain  whether  there  were 
two  or  three,s  were  all  ambitious  of  a  larger  place  in 


1  Compare  Lefranc,  Jewtesse,  pp.  23-25;   Doumergue,  i.  4. 

2  Rathbod  II.,  bishop  1068-1098;  see  Lefranc,  Hist,  de  la  ville  de 
Noyon,  27. 

3  The  facts  have  been  gathered  by  Lefranc  and  Doumergue. 

4  So  Le  Vasseur,  Annales  de  Veglise  de  Noyon,  Paris,  1633;  Dou- 
mergue, i.  5. 

5  The  matter  is  discussed  by  Doumergue,  i.  6,  7.  It  seems  m.ore 
probable  that  Richard  and  Jacques  were  son  and  grandson  of  the 
cooper-boatman  of  Pont-l'Eveque,  rather  than  both  sons. 


1527]  Early  Student  Days  23 

the  world,  or  at  least  of  membership  in  a  more  populous 
community,  than  their  father  had  enjoyed.  One  of 
these  sons,  Richard,  and  a  second,  also,  Jacques,  if 
there  were  really  three  of  them,  found  a  home  in  Paris, 
and  there  followed  the  iron-worker's  trade. ^  The  re- 
maining son,  Gerard,  whose  story  most  concerns  us, 
estabhshed  himself  in  Noyon  before  1 481,''  as  a  man  of 
professional  employment  rather  than  as  a  manual 
labourer  Kke  his  ancestors  and  brothers.  Here  his  skill 
in  legal  and  administrative  business  soon  won  him 
standing;  and  to  the  post  of  one  of  the  registrars  of  the 
government  of  Noyon  which  he  had  attained  by  1481, 
he  added  gradually  the  duties  and  emoluments  of  so- 
licitor in  the  ecclesiastical  court,  fiscal  agent  of  the 
county,  secretary  of  the  bishopric,  and  attorney  of  the 
cathedral  chapter.  By  1497,  he  was  reckoned  suffi- 
ciently one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Noyon  community  to 
be  admitted  a  member  of  its  somewhat  exclusive  bour- 
geoisie and  thus  given  a  pohtical  stake  in  the  city.  We 
may  readily  credit  the  statement  of  Beza^  that  he  was 
a  man  of  judgment  and  ability,  and  he  must  have  been 
of  attractive  personal  quahties,  also,  for  he  won  the 
friendship  of  that  powerful  family  of  Hangest  which 
was  the  most  influential  noble  house  of  the  region,  and 
which  gave  two  bishops  in  Gerard  Cauvin's  lifetime  to 
the  Noyon  diocese.     This  friendship,  in  turn,  may  well 


^  See  a  genealogy  of  Calvin,  from  the  Dupuy  Collection,  in  the 
National  Library  at  Paris,  in  Henry,  Das  Lehen  Johann  Calvins, 
Hamburg,  1835-1844,  iii.  174. 

2  His  name  first  appears  in  a  legal  document  of  September  20,  1481, 
Le  Vasseur,  p.  11 70;    Lefranc,  Jewiesse,  p.  2. 

3  Life,  in  Opera,  xxi.  121. 


24  John  Calvin  [1509- 

have  helped  his  early  rise;  and,  as  the  quarrel  between 
the  chapter  and  the  younger  of  these  prelates  waxed 
fierce,  may  have  been  no  inconsiderable  source  of  the 
troubles  of  his  later  years/ 

Here  at  Noyon,  at  some  uncertain  date,  but  not  im- 
probably about  the  time  of  his  admission  to  the  bour- 
geoisie, Gerard  Cauvin  married  Jeanne  Le  Franc,  the 
daughter  of  a  well-to-do  retired  innkeeper,  Jean  Le 
Franc,  who,  having  prospered  in  business  in  Cambrai, 
had  settled  at  Noyon,  and  w^as  received  into  its  bour- 
geoisie in  1498,  where  he  soon  attained  the  distinction 
of  membership  in  the  city  council.^  Of  the  mother  of 
the  future  reformer  little  is  known.  In  spite  of  at- 
tempted, and  wholly  baseless,  detraction  by  later  re- 
ligious partisanship,  she  seems  to  have  been  a  woman 
marked  by  earnest  piety  of  the  Roman  type,  and  she 
lived  in  local  tradition  as  possessed  of  unusual  beauty. 
Her  influence  on  the  training  of  her  children  was  brief, 
however,  for  she  died  before  any  of  them  reached  ma- 
turity, though  the  year  is  not  known.  Her  husband 
married  again;  but  the  personaHty  of  this  step-mother 
of  the  reformer  is  yet  more  shadowy  than  that  of  his 
mother.  It  is  probable  that  she  died  before  Gerard 
Cauvin,  and  even  the  name  of  this  second  wife  has 
perished. 3 


1  A  suggestion  due  to  Principal  A.  M.  Fairbairn,  Tke  Cambridge 
Modern  History,  ii.  350. 

2  The  facts  regarding  the  Le  Francs  have  been  investigated  by 
Abel  Lefranc,  Jeunesse,  pp.  5-7. 

3  Le  Vasseur,  p.  1152.  There  is  no  mention  of  her  in  the  probate 
proceedings  after  the  death  of  her  husband  given,  Ibid.,  p.  ii6g,  and 
quoted  by  Lefranc,  pp.  201-203.  She  was  a  widow  when  she  married 
Gerard  Cauvin. 


COURT  OF  THE      MAlSON    DE  CALVIN." 

(The  second  story-room  on  the  left  is*xiot  improbably  that  in  which  Calvin  was  born.) 

(Reproduced  by  permissioiTof  Georges  Compi.Ngne,  Noyon.) 


IS27]  Early  Student  Days  25 

Gerard  Cauvin  and  his  wife,  Jeanne,  lived  in  a  com- 
fortable house  on  tlic  Mvely  Place  au  Ble,  where  the 
dwelling  of  the  Le  Francs,  from  which  the  bride  had 
come,  was  also  situated.  Though  the  greater  part  of 
this  home  of  the  Cauvins  has  long  since  been  replaced 
by  other  structures,  it  seems  probable  that  an  inner  por- 
tion still  remains,  so  that  it  is  quite  possible  that  the 
room  in  which  the  future  reformer  first  opened  his  eyes 
on  the  world  may  yet  be  seen  by  the  visitor  to  Noyon.' 
Within  its  walls,  five  sons,  apparently,  were  born  to 
Gerard  and  Jeanne  Cauvin,  ^  three  of  whom  grew  to 
maturity.  Antoine  and  Francois  died  in  childhood. 
Charles,  the  eldest  of  the  sons  who  reached  manhood, 
ran  his  brief  career  in  priestly  orders  at  No  yon  and  in 
its  vicinity  to  its  tragic  end  in  1537,  as  there  will  be 
occasion  to  note.  The  youngest  son  to  grow  up  to 
man's  estate,  who  was  also  the  second  who  bore  the 
name  Antoine,  was  to  accompany  his  brother,  John,  to 
Geneva,  and  was  to  Hve  there,  a  respected  citizen,  in 
spite  of  much  distress  caused  to  him  and  to  his  rela- 
tives by  the  scandalous  conduct  of  his  first  wife,  till 
his  death,  February  2,  1572.     Besides  these  sons,  Ge- 


1  Lefranc,  in  Le  hidletin  dc  la  societe  de  Vhistoire  du  proiestantisme 
fran^ais,  for  1897,  pp.  371-376;  Doumergue,  i.  9.  It  is  known  as 
the  "  Maison  de  Calvin." 

2  Nicolas  CoUadon,  in  his  Life  of  Calvin  (1565),  Opera,  xxi.  53, 
gives  to  Calvin  four  brothers.  As  the  name  "Antoine"  is  ascribed  to 
two  of  them,  one  then  living  and  another  dead  in  childhood,  many 
have  seen  in  this  repetition  a  confusion  on  Colladon's  part,  and  have 
reckoned  Calvin's  brothers  as  three  instead  of  four,  e.g.  Lefranc, 
Jeunesse,  p.  7;  Doumergue,  i.  22;  but  there  is  nothing  uncommon  in 
the  repetition  of  a  beloved  name,  the  first  bearer  of  which  had  been 
removed  by  death,  and  therefore  no  real  ground  to  doubt  Colladon's 
accuracy. 


26  John  Calvin  [1509- 

rard  Cauvin  had  two  daughters,  both  apparently  by 
his  second  wife,  and  therefore  John's  half-sisters.  One 
of  them,  Marie,  like  her  brothers  John  and  Antoine, 
ultimately  made  her  home  in  Geneva,  where  it  would 
seem  she  married.  The  other  half-sister,  whose  name 
is  unknown,  became  the  wife  of  a  resident  of  Noyon.^ 
John  Calvin,  to  give  the  famihar  Anglicised  form  of 
his  name,  was  the  second  of  the  sons  of  Gerard  Cauvin 
and  Jeanne  Le  Franc  to  grow  to  maturity.^  Born  on 
July  10,  1509,  he  was  taken  for  baptism,  doubtless 
speedily  thereafter,  to  the  little  church  of  Sainte-Gode- 
berte,  to  the  parish  of  which  his  parents  belonged  and 
which  then  stood  in  the  Place  au  Ble  opposite  the 


1  John  Calvin,  in  his  will  of  April  25,  1564,  left  a  bequest  to  "  Jeanne, 
daughter  of  Charles  Costan  and  of  my  half-sister  on  the  paternal 
side";  French  version,  Opera,  xx.  300.  The  Latin  version,  Ibid., 
xxi.  163,  is  less  definite,  calling  her  simply  affinis;  but  the  French 
is  earlier  and  was  printed  by  Beza  in  the  year  of  Calvin's  death.  The 
reference  to  "Maria  Paludana,"  in  Calvin's  letter  of  Januar}'  18, 
1532,  in  which  Herminjard  (Correspondance  des  rejormateurs,  ii.  397) 
saw  a  Latinised  form  of  the  name  of  a  supposed  husband,  is  probably 
not  to  her.  Marie  was  more  probably  unmarried  when  she  came  to 
Geneva  vnXh  Calvin  in  1536;  and  her  marriage  to  Charles  Costan 
was  probably  during  Calvin's  first  stay  in  the  city;  though  of  tliis 
nothing  is  certainly  known.  See  Doumergue,  iii.  676-679.  For  the 
nameless  sister,  see  Lefranc,  pp.  8,  183.  That  both  were  half-sisters 
is  made  probable  by  the  absence  of  mention  of  them  in  the  legal  pro- 
ceedings instituted  by  Charles,  John,  and  Antoine  Calvin  regarding 
the  disposition  of  the  property  of  their  late  mother.  Ibid.,  pp.  202, 
205;  Doumergue,  iii.  678.  That  Calvin  had  a  sister  Catherine,  who 
became  the  wife  of  William  Whittingham,  dean  of  Durham,  as  often 
alleged,  is  an  error.     Doumergue,  iii.  666-675. 

2  According  to  the  genealogy  from  the  Dupuy  Collection,  Henr}',  iii. 
174,  John  was  the  third  son.  All  other  authorities  place  him  second. 
See  Lefranc,  p.  8. 


1527]  Early  Student  Days  27 

Cauvins'  home.  Here  he  had  as  godfather  Jean  de 
Vatines,  one  of  the  canons  of  the  Noyon  cathedral;  and 
it  is  possible  that  he  received  his  Christian  name  out 
of  compliment  to  this  sponsor  whose  place  in  the  little 
episcopal  city  was  undoubtedly  one  of  dignity.  Of  the 
events  of  his  boyhood  only  scanty  memorials  have  been 
preserved.  Gerard  Cauvin  was  ambitious  for  his  sons. 
He  was  determined  that  they  should  have  the  best  edu- 
cation that  was  in  his  power  to  obtain  for  them;  and, 
therefore,  Charles,  the  eldest  of  the  boys,  was  sent  by 
his  father  to  the  endowed  school  known  as  that  of  the 
CapetteSy  of  which  mention  has  already  been  made. 
Thither  John  and  Antoine  followed  him  in  due  course; 
and,  though  his  later  fame  may  have  coloured  the  tradi- 
tion, one  can  readily  believe  that  the  impression  which 
existed  two  or  three  generations  later  was  correct,  that 
even  here  John  Calvin  manifested  so  eager  a  spirit  and 
so  retentive  a  memory  as  to  give  him  an  easy  superiority 
over  his  youthful  schoolfellows.^ 

Quite  as  influential  in  the  development  of  the  boy's 
hfe  as  this  instruction  in  the  schoolroom  of  the  Capettes 
were  the  friendships  which  he  formed  with  his  contem- 
poraries among  the  sons  of  the  noble  family  of  Hangest, 
notably  with  those  of  Louis  de  Hangest,  lord  of  Mont- 
mor,  and  of  his  brother,  Adrien,  lord  of  GenHs."  To 
Claude,  son  of  the  nobleman  last  named,  Calvin  was, 


1  So  Papire  Masson,  writing  about  1583,  Elogiu,  Paris,  1638,  ii. 
409;  and  Jacques  Desmay,  between  1614  and  1621,  Remarqties  con- 
siderables sur  la  vie  et  moeurs  de  Jean  Calvin,  Rouen,  1621.  See, 
also,  Doumergue,  i.  35. 

2  On  the  members  of  this  family  see  Lefranc,  Jeunesse,  p.  186;  and 
Doumergue,  i.  536. 


28  John  Calvin  [1509- 

years  later,  to  dedicate  his  first  book,  when  Claude  had 
become  abbot  of  Saint- Eloi  at  Noyon.  With  Joachim 
and  Ives,  and  a  brother  of  theirs  whose  name  is  now 
lost,  sons  of  the  seigneur  of  Montmor,  Calvin  stood  in 
intimate  school  fellowship;  and  his  relations  to  these 
households  of  Montmor  and  Genlis  seem,  indeed,  to 
have  been  much  closer  than  merely  those  of  the  school- 
room. To  Claude  he  could  later  gratefully  describe 
himself  as  "a  child  brought  up  in  your  house,  initiated 
with  you  into  the  same  studies."  ^  Such  an  association 
was  doubtless  in  large  part  a  result  of  the  high  estimate 
in  which  Calvin's  father  was  held  by  the  family  of  Han- 
gest;  but  not  wholly  so,  for  neither  of  John's  brothers 
seems  to  have  enjoyed  this  friendship  in  a  similar  de- 
gree, so  that  some  share  in  its  growth  must  be  ascribed 
to  the  attractive  qualities  of  the  boy  himself.  Yet  it 
was  as  no  dependent  on  the  bounty  of  those  higher  in 
station  that  Gerard  Cauvin  encouraged  or  the  boy  fos- 
tered a  relationship  which  the  early  death  of  his  mother 
may  have  rendered  even  more  homehke  and  attractive. 
His  education,  as  Beza  definitely  affirms,  was  at  his 
father's  charges;  ^  and  he  never  forgot  the  relative  sim- 
pHcity  of  his  own  origins,  describing  himself  in  the  ded- 
ication from  which  quotation  has  just  been  made  as 
"a  man  of  the  people,"  in  contrast  to  the  noble  house 
whose  friendship  he  enjoyed.  Of  the  value  of  that 
friendship  to  the  future  reformer  there  can  be  no  ques- 
tion. It  probably  determined  his  father  to  send  him 
to  the  University  of  Paris;    and  it  certainly  gave  to 


1  De  Clementia,  in  Opera,  v.  8. 

2  Life,  of  1575,  in  Opera,  xxi.  121. 


1527]  Early  Student  Days  29 

Calvin  an  acquaintance  with  the  ways  of  poHtc  society 
such  as  few  of  the  reformers  enjoyed,  in  an  age  when 
the  gulf  between  the  manners  of  those  in  high  station 
and  of  the  mass  of  the  people  was  far  greater  than  at 
present. 

Though  Gerard  Cauvin  was  too  independent  by 
nature  to  permit  his  sons  to  sohcit  the  gifts  of  friendly 
noblemen,  he  had  no  hesitation  in  employing  his  influ- 
ence with  the  bishop  and  chapter  of  Noyon  to  procure 
for  them  appointments  to  lucrative  ecclesiastical  posi- 
tions as  a  means  of  aiding  their  studies.  This  was  a 
not  infrequent  practice,  and  conveyed  to  the  popular 
mind  httle  of  the  impression  of  an  abuse  that  would 
now  attach  to  it,  when  it  is  remembered  that  the  youth- 
ful recipients  of  office  were  not  themselves  of  age  or 
position  to  discharge  the  duties  thus  nominally  assumed, 
but  were  compelled  to  have  the  actual  service  performed 
by  those  in  clerical  office  and  of  maturer  years  who 
would  be  willing  to  undertake  the  labour  for  a  fraction 
of  the  stipend.  Gerard  Cauvin  first  procured  this 
means  of  support  for  his  eldest  son.     On  February  24, 

1 5 19,  Charles  was  put  in  possession  of  a  chaplaincy  at- 
tached to  the  altar  of  La  Gesine  in  the  cathedral  of 
Noyon, — a  charge  which  he  exchanged,  in  November, 

1520,  for  a  similar  post  in  the  same  church.  The  nine- 
teenth of  May,  1 52 1,  saw  the  same  office  which  Charles 
Cauvin  had  received  two  years  before  bestowed  on 
his  brother,  John,  who  still  lacked  nearly  two  months 
of  having  reached  twelve  years  of  age  w^hen  thus  given 
an  ecclesiastical  charge.  He  doubtless  received  the 
tonsure, — the  only  sign  of  membership  in  a  clerical  order 


so 


John  Calvin  [1509- 


which  Calvin  ever  attained  in  the  Roman  Church, — 
but  there  could  be  no  question  of  ordination  of  the 
youthful  incumbent,  whose  connection  with  the  office 
was  purely  financial.  Chief  of  the  revenues  which  it 
brought  its  schoolboy  holder  were  taxes  in  grain,  pay- 
able by  the  neighbouring  territories  of  Voienne  and  of 
Eppeville  (Espeville).  To  this  benefice  in  the  Noyon 
cathedral,  John  Calvin  added,  on  September  27,  1527, 
the  pastorate  of  Saint- Martin  de  Martheville, — a  curacy 
which  he  exchanged,  on  June  5,  1529,  probably  for 
family  and  pecuniary  reasons,  for  that  of  Pont-l'Eveque, 
the  ancestral  home  of  the  Cauvins.  His  claim  on  the 
altar  of  La  Gesine  John  reHnquished,  on  April  30th,  of 
the  year  last  mentioned,  in  favour  of  his  younger 
brother,  Antoine;  but  resumed  it  again  not  quite  two 
years  later,  on  February  26,  1531.'  In  this  matter 
all  three  brothers  received  similar  advantages,  Charles 
becoming  pastor  at  Roupy  in  1527,  and  Antoine  at 
Tournerolle  about  two  years  later.  With  the  income 
thus  provided  John  Calvin  and  his  brothers  were 
enabled  to  carry  on  their  studies  and  make  their  start 
in  Hfe. 

This  wish  to  do  the  best  possible  for  the  education 
of  his  children  doubtless  was  the  prime  moving  cause 
that  induced  Gerard  to  send  John  to  the  University  of 
Paris  in  August,  1523,  when  the  boy  had  just  passed 


^  Extracts  from  the  Registers  of  the  Chapter  are  given  by  Lefranc, 
Jeunesse,  pp.  194-201;  see  also  Ihid.,  pp.  9-12;  and  Doumergue,  i. 
37-39.  On  these  dates  see  Karl  Miiller,  Calvins  Bekehrung,  in  the 
Nachrichten  von  der  konigl.  Gesellschajt  der  Wissenschaften  zu 
CotHngen,  for  1905,  pp  220-222. 


1527]  Early  Student  Days  31 

his  fourteenth  birthday.  But  certain  special  con- 
siderations made  the  parental  decision  easy  at  the  time. 
The  plague  was  raging  in  Noyon/  rendering  that  city 
an  unsafe  place  of  residence.  His  three  friends  of  the 
house  of  Montmor  were  going  to  the  University  under 
the  charge  of  a  tutor,  whose  instruction  and  guidance, 
all  insufficient  as  it  proved,''  he  could  share;  and  the 
residence  of  an  uncle,  Richard,  gave  the  boy  the 
certainty  of  friendly  supervision  during  the  trying  begin- 
nings of  his  student  Hfe.  It  may  well  have  been  agree- 
able to  Gerard's  independent  spirit  that  his  son,  while 
enjoying  the  advantages  of  study  and  companionship 
with  his  noble  friends,  should  not  be  in  any  way  in- 
debted to  their  father's  bounty  for  his  living,  but  should 
find  a  home  with  his  uncle,  near  the  church  of  Saint- 
Germain  I'Auxerrois,  separate  from  that  in  which  they 
were  domiciled. 

To  the  boy  of  fourteen  the  transfer  to  Paris  brought 
almost  complete  separation  from  the  city  in  which  his 
childhood  had  been  spent.  Thenceforward  he  was  to 
be  rarely  and  but  for  brief  sojourns  in  Noyon;  but  his 
interest  in  the  fortunes  of  the  town  and  of  its  inhabitants 
always  continued  keen,  and  his  relations  to  the  friends 
who  still  lived  there  show  the  depth  and  permanency  of 
his  affection  for  the  city  of  his  nativity. 

The  University  of  Paris,  in  which  Calvin  now  became 
a  student,  had  long  been  reputed,  as  has  already  been 
noted,  the  most  eminent  seat  of  learning  in  Europe. 

^  Lefranc,  Jeunesse,  p.  13. 

2  Calvin  calls  him  "homo  stolidus,"  Letter  to  Cordier,  Opera,  xiii. 
526. 


32  John  Calvin  [1509- 

It  had  not  maintained  its  ancient  leadership  in  the  world 
of  thought.  In  the  educational  transition  which  the 
rise  of  the  new  learning  was  effecting,  it  had  clung  for 
the  most  part  to  the  older  methods  which  humanism 
would  revolutionise,  and  even  these  traditional  con- 
ceptions of  education  were  inefficiently  applied.  Doubt- 
less the  scorn  of  the  humanists  for  its  teaching,  its 
prevailingly  mediaeval  Latinity,  and  its  hair-splitting 
dialectics  was  not  wholly  deserved;  but  it  had  a  very 
considerable  basis  of  truth.  Yet  an  institution  that 
was,  through  one  of  its  instructors,  to  develop  Calvin's 
Latin  style,  and  by  its  classrooms  was  to  train  his  dia- 
lectic skill,  cannot  have  been  without  strength  even  in 
its  comparative  decay.  Though  it  prevailingly  resisted 
the  new  learning,  Calvin  was  to  find  a  representative 
of  that  classic  revival  ^vithin  its  walls.  In  general, 
however,  the  intellectual  outlook  of  the  University  of 
Paris  was  unquestionably  mediaeval. 

Judged  by  modern  standards,  the  University  was  a 
seat  of  secondary  as  well  as  of  higher  instruction.^ 
Its  Faculty  of  Arts,  under  which  the  student  began  his 
course,  was  divided,  according  to  the  nativity  of  those 
under  instruction,  into  the  four  "nations"  of  France, 
Germany,  Normandy,  and  Picardy.  Above  this  Fac- 
ulty of  Arts  were  the  higher  Faculties,  or,  as  we  should 
now  say,  graduate  schools,  of  Theology,  Law,  and 
Medicine, — that  first  named  being  of  great  strength, 
for  Paris  was  primarily  noted  as  a  seat  of  theology  and 
philosophy,  while  the  two  latter  were  weak.     These 


^  Doumergue  has  treated  the  University  with  great  weahh  of  de- 
tail, i.  49-77- 


1527]  Early  Student  Days  ^^ 

"nations"  of  the  Faculty  of  Arts  were  administrative 
divisions, — the  w^ork  of  the  students  being  chiefly  carried 
on  in  "colleges,"  in  which  a  great  portion  of  the  student 
body  also  lived.  These  colleges  in  origin  were  chari- 
table foundations  to  aid  indigent  scholars,  but  had 
extended  by  the  time  of  Calvin  to  the  University  as  a 
whole.  In  many  of  these  colleges  the  life  of  the  student 
was  marked  by  an  asceticism  in  food  that  now  seems  al- 
most incredible,'  while  the  tilth,  the  severe  hours  of 
study  and  recitation,  beginning  at  five  in  the  morning, 
and  extending  with  but  four  hours'  intermission  for 
food  and  play  till  eight  in  the  evening,  and  the  constant 
employment  of  corporal  punishment,  made  his  lot  a 
hard  one  from  the  point  of  view  of  modern  education. 
To  a  certain  extent,  as  an  out-student,  living  in  the  home 
of  an  uncle,  Calvin  must  have  been  protected  from  the 
temptations  and  spared  the  more  trying  physical  ex- 
periences that  then  beset  student  life,  and  there  is  no 
evidence  that  he  ever  regarded  his  way  as  pecuHarly 
difiicult;  but  the  path  to  knowledge  must  have  been  a 
painful  one  at  best. 

The  preparation  in  Latin,  already  gained  by  Calvin 
at  Noyon,  was  but  a  beginning,  insufficient  to  enable 
him  to  enter  any  class  highel*  than  the  fourth,^  in  which 
the  rudiments  of  the  language  were  studied.  But  here 
a  piece  of  great  good  fortune  awaited  him.  Though 
still,  and  for  some  time  to  come,  under  the  direction  of 
the  unsatisfactory  tutor  who  had  guided  him  and  his 
friends  the  Montmors,  and  had  accompanied  them  to 


^  Compare  Doumergue,  i.  68-73. 
*  Opera,  xiii.  525. 

3 


34  John  Calvin  [1509- 

Paris,  he  now  became  a  student  in  the  comparatively 
inconspicuous  College  de  la  Marche,  where  Mathurin 
Cordier  then  served  as  one  of  the  two  "regents  in  gram- 
mar." Moreover,  Cordier,  who  had  been  teaching  the 
first,  or  most  advanced,  class  with  success,  disgusted 
with  the  insufficiency  of  current  grounding  in  Latin, 
had,  in  the  year  of  Calvin's  coming  to  Paris,  taken  up 
voluntarily  the  instruction  of  the  comparative  beginners 
of  the  fourth  class.  ^ 

To  be  under  Cordier' s  tuition  was  to  enjoy  the  best 
introduction  to  the  study  of  Latin  that  France  had 
then  to  offer.  About  forty-four  years  of  age  when 
Calvin  became  his  pupil,  Cordier  had  been  as  a  young 
man  a  priest  in  Rouen,  of  which  region  he  was  probably 
a  native,^  but  for  ten  years  he  had  taught  at  Paris. 
Convinced  that  the  prime  task  of  the  teacher,  especially 
of  young  scholars,  is  to  arouse  interest  for  study  in  his 
pupils,  he  put  aside,  in  large  measure,  the  formal  and 
arbitrary  methods  of  instruction  then  generally  in 
vogue.  To  make  the  language  Hve  in  the  thought  of 
the  pupil,  rather  than  to  fill  the  young  student's  mind 
with  a  mass  of  mechanically  acquired  detail,  was  his 
aim.  That  it  should  be  accompKshed,  he  devoted  great 
attention  to  the  acquisition  of  a  correct  and  elegant 
conversational  use  of  the  ancient  tongue.  He  strove 
to  weed  out  current  barbarisms,  of  which  student  usage 
afforded  only  too  plentiful  illustration.  His  kindly 
spirit,  no  less  than  his  clear  pedagogical  insight,  led 
him  to  oppose  the  constant  use  of  the  rod,  and  to  urge 


Opera,  xiii.  525. 

He  was  from  Normandy  or  le  Perche,  Doumergue,  i.  537. 


1527]  Early  Student  Days  35 

the  establishment  of  famihar  and  friendly  relations 
between  teacher  and  scholars,  whose  moral  develop- 
ment, no  less  than  whose  intellectual  training,  the 
teacher,  he  held,  should  regard  as  a  duty.  Not  a  little 
of  this  kindliness  of  relationship  to  his  young  pupils  by 
which  Cordier  effectually  put  into  practice  his  enlight- 
ened ideas  of  education  was  the  fruit  of  his  simple, 
unaffected  piety  of  heart.'  A  lovable,  as  well  as  a 
very  helpful,  man,  he  may  well  have  aided  in  the  re- 
ligious, as  he  certainly  did  in  the  intellectual,  develop- 
ment of  the  boy  who  now  came  under  his  moulding 
influence  and  found  in  him  a  teacher  to  admire  and 
reverence.  Calvin  always  remembered  with  affection 
this  instructor  under  whom  he  began  his  student  days 
at  Paris;  and  ascribed  to  Cordier  his  initiation  into 
effective  methods  of  study. ^  When,  in  turn,  thirteen 
years  later,  Cordier  found  France  dangerous  ground 
for  the  Protestant  sentiments  which  he  had  then  em- 
braced, he  followed  his  former  pupil  to  Switzerland,  was 
welcomed  by  Calvin,  taught  at  Neuchatel,  Hved  in 
Geneva,  and  died  in  the  latter  city,  in  the  same  year  as 
Calvin,  at  the  advanced  age  of  eighty-five. 

Calvin's  stay  at  the  College  de  la  Marche,  and  con- 
sequent training  under  Cordier,  was  but  for  a  few 
months  at  most.  His  studies  were  still  regulated  by  the 
tutor  who  directed  him  and  his  three  friends  of  the  house 
of  Hangest;  and  by  what  Calvin  seems  afterward  to 
have  regarded  as  the  tutor's  caprice  he  was  transferred 


1  His  ideas  were  set  forth  in  his  De  Corrupti  Sermonis  Emendations, 
of  1531;   see,  also,  Doumergue,  i.  60,  61. 

2  Opera,  xiii.  525,  526. 


36  John  Calvin  [1509- 

to  the  College  de  Montaigu.^  It  may  have  been  true, 
however,  that  his  father's  intention  that  he  should  be 
fitted  for  a  career  in  the  Church,  and  the  wishes  of  the 
canons  of  Noyon,  by  whose  favour  he  held  the  benefices 
that  defrayed  the  expenses  of  his  student  days,  were 
factors  in  the  decision,  for  Montaigu  was  a  much  more 
ecclesiastically  flavoured,  as  well  as  more  noted,  college 
than  La  Marche.''  The  college  of  which  Calvin  now 
became  a  member  bore  the  name  of  Pierre  de  Mon- 
taigu, bishop  of  Laon,  by  whom  it  had  been  recon- 
stituted in  1388,  seventy-four  years  after  its  foundation 
by  Gilles  AisceHn,  archbishop  of  Rouen;  but  its  fame 
in  Calvin's  day  was  primarily  due  to  the  work  of  Jean 
Standonch,  by  whom  it  had  been  brought  to  a  flourish- 
ing condition,  and  given  a  series  of  rules  of  exceeding 
ascetic  and  scholastic  strictness  which  were  completed 
in  the  year  of  Calvin's  birth.^  Erasmus  had  been  one 
of  its  scholars  half  a  generation  before  Calvin  entered 
its  halls,  and  Ignatius  Loyola  was  to  follow  immediately 
after  Calvin's  departure.  Nor  was  the  head  of  the 
College  de  Montaigu  in  Calvin's  student  days  in  any 
way  unworthy  of  its  fame.  Its  principal  for  many  years 
had  been  Noel  Beda,  a  conservative  theologian  of  power, 
the  determined  enemy  of  all  modifications  of  Roman 
doctrine  or  usage.  In  1521,  he  had  led  the  onslaught 
on  Le  Fevre  which  had  resulted  in  the  condemnation 
by  the  Sorbonne  of  that  mild-tempered  scholar's  criti- 


1  Opera,  xiii.  526. 

2  Lefranc,  Jeunesse,  pp.  63,  64,  makes  this  suggestion. 

3  Felibien,  Histoire  de  Paris,  ux.  727-728;  compare  Doumergue,  i. 
66-73. 


1527]  Early  Student  Days  37 

cism  of  the  current  identification  of  Mary  Magdalene 
with  Mary,  the  sister  of  Lazarus,  and  with  the  woman 
"which  was  a  sinner."  Not  content  with  this  achieve- 
ment, Beda,  five  years  later,  attacked  Le  Fevre  and 
Erasmus  in  print;  '  and  showed  the  courage  of  con- 
victions which  were  bringing  upon  him,  by  reason  of 
their  extremely  reactionary  character,  the  hostiHty  of 
King  Francis  I.,  and  at  a  later  period  (1533)  were  to 
lead  to  his  exile  from  Paris.  It  was  no  weak  or  in- 
significant champion  of  mediaeval  scholarship  and  the- 
ology that  ruled  the  College  de  Montaigu  while  Calvin 
was  numbered  in  its  student  body. 

Calvin's  immediate  instruction  in  the  classroom  on 
his  entrance  into  the  College  de  Montaigu  was  from  an 
unnamed  learned  Spaniard,  the  vehicle  being  of  .course 
the  Latin  tongue,  for  the  use  of  French  was  not  per- 
mitted in  the  college.  So  effectively  did  the  work  sup- 
plement that  had  already  been  begun  under  Cordier 
that  Calvin  soon  surpassed  those  who  had  been 
his  companions  in  the  prehminary  studies  of  grammar 
and  rhetoric;  and  was  promoted,^  doubtless  as  the 
result  of  the  successful  passage  of  the  examination  then 
required,  to  what  were  regarded  as  the  more  important 
discipHnes  of  philosophy  and  dialectics,  which  con- 
stituted the  backbone  of  the  course  then  pursued  under 
the  Faculty  of  Arts.  Any  calculation  of  the  date  of 
this  event  is,  of  course,  conjectural;  but  if,  as  is  prob- 
able, Calvin  followed  the  philosophical  course  for  the 
three   years   and   a   half   then   considered   its   normal 


1  Herminjard,  i.  78,  402,  436. 

2  Beza,  Life,  of  1575,  Opera,  xxi.  121. 


38  John    Calvin  [1509- 

length,^  his  promotion  from  grammatical  studies  would 
have  occurred  in  the  autumn  of  1524,  a  Kttle  over  a  year 
after  his  entrance  to  the  University.  Such  facility  in 
the  mastery  of  Latin  reveals  the  young  scholar  as  giving 
brilliant  promise  not  merely  of  success  in  the  usual 
student  career  of  the  University,  but  of  conspicuous 
humanistic  attainments  as  within  his  ultimate  grasp. 
Of  his  course  in  the  college  little  can  be  definitely 
affirmed.  The  institution  was  famous  for  its  learned 
disputations,  and  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  not 
merely  that  Calvin's  own  powers  of  argument  were 
developed  and  strengthened  by  these  intellectual 
wrestHng-matches,  but  that  he  soon  came  to  excel  in 
argumentative  force  as  he  had  already  in  linguistic 
abihty.  The  discipHne  thus  undergone  must  have  been 
of  great  value  in  training  those  keen  powers  of  logical 
analysis  and  constructive  reasoning  of  which  he  was 
afterwards  to  make  remarkable  use.  Here,  at  the 
College  de  Montaigu,  his  course  of  study  continued 
till  the  close  of  1527,  or,  more  probably,  the  opening 
weeks  of  1528,  when  he  would  naturally  attain  the  rank 
of  licentiate  of  arts.  That  he  received  this  degree  is 
not  a  matter  of  record ;  but  without  it  he  could  not 
have  entered  upon  the  higher  studies  that  he  then  im- 
mediately began.'' 

If  it  is  impossible  to  recover  many  details  of  Calvin's 
early  student  career,  we  are  fortunately  not  in  ignorance 
as  to  some  of  the  friendships  he  then  continued  or 


1  Bulasus,  Hist.  Univ.  Paris.,  v.  858-859. 

2  Herminjard,  ii.  279,  note.  He  is  described  as  a  "  magister"  in 
the  records  of  the  Noyon  Chapter  of  April  30,  1529,  Lefranc, 
Jeunesse,  p.  177. 


1527]  Early   Student   Days 


39 


formed  which  throw  some  light  on  his  character  at 
this  critical  period  of  his  life.'  With  the  three  boys 
of  the  Hangest  family  he  had  come  to  tlie  University, 
and  the  friendship  begun  in  Noyon  remained  stead- 
fast. There  is  no  evidence  that  any  of  them  was  con- 
spicuous for  scholarship,  and  two  of  the  three  were  to 
die  early  in  the  profession  of  arms; "  but  to  their  cousin, 
the  third  of  the  group,^  Calvin  was  warmly  to  dedicate 
his  first  book,  as  has  already  been  noted.  A  younger 
brother  of  the  two  first  mentioned  was,  years  later,  to 
throw  in  his  lot  with  Calvin  at  Geneva,  and  the  family 
of  Hangest  was  to  contribute  a  number  of  its  repre- 
sentatives to  the  Protestant  cause. 

Besides  these  companions  of  his  boyhood  home, 
Calvin  became  intimately  acquainted,  at  Paris,  with 
the  household  of  Guillaume  Cop,^  first  physician  to 
the  King  and  an  eminent  member  of  the  Faculty  of 
Medicine.  A  Swiss  from  the  Hberal  and  humanistic 
city  of  Basel,  Cop  enjoyed  the  friendship  of  Erasmus 
and  Reuchlin,  and  was  not  merely  of  high  fame  in  his 


1  The  subject  is  discussed  by  Lefranc,  Jeunesse,  pp.  67-71;  Dou- 
mergue,  i.  75-77;  and  Fairbairn,  The  Cambridge  Modern  History,  ii. 
351- 

2  Joachim  and  Yves  were  killed  at  the  storming  of  Saint-Pol  in 
1537.     Lefranc,  Ibid.,  p.  68. 

3  Claude,  then  abbot  of  Saint-Eloi  at  Noyon. 

4  Haag,  La  France  Protestante,  2nd  ed.,  iv.  615-617.  Calvin's  letter 
of  June  27,  1 53 1,  to  Francois  Daniel,  Herminjard,  ii.  346,  shows  that 
his  acquaintance  with  the  Cops  did  not  begin  with  his  second  stay  at 
Paris,  and  therefore  probably  dates  back  to  this  undergraduate 
period.  Miiller  {Calvins  Bekehrung,  p.  203)  thinks  that  Nicolas 
Cop  may  have  first  met  Calvin  in  Orleans  or  Bourges,  or  the  Cops 
and  Calvin  may  have  been  brought  together  by  Wolmar. 


40  John   Calvin  [1509- 

profession,  but  possessed  of  considerable  interest  in 
letters.^  The  elder  two  of  Cop's  four  sons  were  per- 
haps too''  old  to  be  well  acquainted  with  the  student 
from  Noyon ;  but  to  Nicolas,  the  third  of  these  brothers, 
Calvin  was  attached  by  the  closest  ties  of  friendship. 
Four  years  Calvin's  senior,  and  of  such  brilHant  schol- 
arly attainments  that  he  received  a  professorship  of 
philosophy,  in  1530,  in  the  College  Sainte-Barbe  of  the 
University,  Nicolas  Cop  was  to  be  associated  with  Cal- 
vin in  the  crisis  of  his  own  scholarly  career,  on  terms  of 
intimacy  the  exact  extent  of  which  there  will  be  occa- 
sion later  to  examine.  With  the  fourth  of  Guillaume 
Cop's  sons,  Michel,  Calvin  was  almost  as  closely  associ- 
ated as  with  Nicolas ;  and  this  friend  was  later  to  follow 
Calvin  to  Geneva,  and  enter  the  Reformed  pastorate.^ 
A  further  close  acquaintance  of  Calvin's  Parisian 
student  days  was  one  whom  he  may  have  met  at  Noyon 
while  a  schoolboy,  Pierre  Robert,  who  bore  the  scho- 
lastic nickname  of  OHvetan.  Older  by  a  few  years  than 
Calvin,  he  was  not  only  a  fellow- townsman  from  Noyon, 
but  the  son  of  one  who,  like  Gerard  Cauvin,  was  a  so- 
licitor in  the  ecclesiastical  court,  and  linked  to  Calvin 
by   family    relationship ,4      Of   his   later   relations    to 


I  Erasmus  called  him,  in  1498,  "  Afusarum  cultorem,"  Letters,  cd. 
Le  Clerc,  iii.  i,  26. 

2  This  has  been  disputed,  Herminjard,  ii.  348;  Doinel,  Bulletin 
xxvi.  176;  Doumergue,  i.     75. 

4  Just  what  the  relationship  was  it  is  impossible  to  say,  but  Beza 
and  CoUadon  witness  to  the  fact,  Opera,  xxi.  29,  54,  121.  On  him 
in  general  see  Herminjard,  ii.  451,  v.  228,  280;  Lefranc,  Jeunesse, 
28,99-104;  Doumergue,  i.  1 1 7-1 25;  Bonet-Maury  in  Hauck's  i?ea/- 
encyklopddie  fiir  prot.  Theologie,  xiv.  363. 


1527]  Early  Student  Days  41 

Calvin's  religious  development  there  will  be  not  ji  little 
to  be  said;  but  the  fact  of  his  friendship  may  now  be 
noted  in  trying  to  form  some  picture  of  Calvin's  circle 
at  the  University. 

Besides  the  more  intimate  friends  already  mentioned, 
it  is  probable  that  Calvin's  membership  in  that  portion 
of  the  student  body  known  as  the  "nation"  of  Picardy 
would  bring  him  into  close  touch  with  all  students  or 
instructors  of  prominence  who  regarded  his  native 
region  as  their  home.  But,  as  these  relations  are  in- 
ferential rather  than  a  matter  of  proof,  it  is  easy  to 
insist  upon  them  too  much.'  It  is  evident,  however, 
from  such  friendships  as  have  been  described,  most, 
if  not  all,  of  which  were  now  formed,  that  the  young 
student  at  Paris  must  have  been  of  more  than  ordinary 
attractiveness  and  charm.  To  win  the  regard  of 
such  a  man  as  Cordier,  to  hold  the  affections  of  young 
noblemen  like  those  of  the  house  of  Montmor-Hansrest, 
who  assuredly  were  under  no  obligation  to  continue  a 
friendship  had  it  proved  irksome,  above  all  to  gain 
the  goodwill  of  a  family  of  distinguished  station  and 
scholarly  eminence  Hke  that  of  Cop,  bespeak  unusual 
wdnsomeness  in  a  student  of  relatively  humble  birth, 
with  Httle  save  himself  to  offer.  Nor  is  the  quality  of 
his  friendships  less  illuminative  as  to  his  personal 
character.  To  attract  a  Cordier  or  the  household  of  a 
Cop  certainly  indicates  a  nature  attuned  to  the  better 
and  finer  side  of  life.  No  student  of  low  impulses,  or 
unrefined  tastes,  or  of  a  misanthropic,  uncompanionable 


^  Lefranc,  Ihid.,  pp.  68,  69,  and  Doumergue,  i.  76,  give  the   names 
of  some  into  relations  with  whom  he  was  probably  brought. 


42 


John  Calvin  [1509- 


disposition,  could  have  won  the  permanent  regard 
or  made  the  lasting  impression  that  Calvin  did  upon 
those  whose  friendship  it  was  an  honour  to  possess. 

Yet  legend,  reflecting  it  may  be  the  severer  traits  of 
his  later  life,  has  ascribed  to  the  student  Calvin  a  cen- 
soriousness  of  judgment  in  his  relations  to  his  com- 
panions, and  an  unsociabiHty  of  temper,  that,  if  true, 
would  paint  for  us  a  very  different  portrait  of  the  young 
scholar  whose  experiences  at  the  University  of  Paris 
have  just  been  reviewed.  A  story,  credited  by  Le 
Vasseur  ^  to  Calvin's  brilHant  renegade  one-time  friend 
and  disciple,  but  afterward  enemy  and  calumnist, 
Franfois  Baudoin  (1520-1573),  relates  that  his  fellow- 
students  called  him  "the  accusative  case,"  because  of 
his  denunciatory  spirit.  It  is  unnecessary,  however, 
to  weigh  the  question  of  Baudoin's  degree  of  truthful- 
ness, as  the  statement  is  not  to  be  found  in  his  own 
published  controversy  with  Calvin,  and  has  no  real 
foundation.  A  degree  of  plausibility  is  given  to  it, 
it  is  true,  by  Beza's  declaration  regarding  the  friend 
whose  biography  he  was  writing  that,  as  a  student  at 
Paris,  Calvin  was  not  merely  very  religious,  but  a  strict 
censor  of  all  vices  among  his  associates  (severus  om- 
nium in  suis  sodalibus  vitiorum  censor).''  Student  life, 
as  is  abundantly  witnessed  not  merely  by  the  satires  of 
Rabelais,  but  by  the  sober  letters  of  Erasmus  and  of 
many  less  distinguished  scholars,  was  apt  in  that  day 
to  be  lawless  and  vicious  enough;    and  an  earnest, 


1  Annates  de VEglise  de  Noyon,  Paris,  1633,  P-  i ^S^j  see  also  Kamp- 
schulte,  Johann  Calvin,  i.  225;   and  Doumergue,  i.  73-75- 

2  Opera,  xxi.  121. 


1527]  Early  Student  Days  43 

religious,  and  scholarly  youth,  of  refined  tastes,  such 
as  Calvin  was,  could  have  had  little  sympathy  with  its 
cruder  excesses.  But  that  he  was  misanthropic,  of 
unfriendly  spirit,  or  was  regarded  by  his  associates  with 
aversion,  there  is  no  adequate  evidence.  The  facts 
point  to  an  opposite  conclusion;  and  he  appears  at  the 
completion  of  his  course  under  the  Faculty  of  Arts,  in 
his  nineteenth  year,  a  student  of  high  personal  char- 
acter, great  linguistic  and  dialectic  promise,  able  to 
make  and  keep  friends  whose  interest  in  him  must 
have  been  primarily  due  to  the  attractive  quaUties  of 
head  and  heart  which  he  revealed  to  them.  The 
report  of  his  successes  at  the  University  must  have 
pleased  his  old  patrons,  the  canons  of  the  cathedral 
at  Noyon,  for  in  September,  1527,  they  added  to  his 
ecclesiastical  holding  the  curacy  of  Saint-Martin  de 
Martheville.  The  increase  in  his  income  was  consider- 
able, and  the  purpose  which  impelled  the  gift  can  have 
been  naught  else  than  a  desire  to  aid  a  brilliant  young 
fellow-townsman  in  his  studies,  for  the  relations  of 
Gerard  Cauvin  to  the  chapter  were  already  such  that 
the  benefice  cannot  have  been  given  for  the  father's 
sake.  Certainly  the  young  student  from  Noyon  was 
well  treated  by  the  friends  who  had  knovvn  him  in  his 
boyhood  town  and,  in  turn,  must  have  possessed  quali- 
ties which  commanded  their  regard. 


CHAPTER  III 

UNCERTAINTY   AS   TO   HIS   WORK   IN  LIFE 

THE  completion,  late  in  1527  or  early  in  1528,  of 
what  would  now  be  called  in  America  his 
undergraduate  course  under  the  Faculty  of  Arts, 
brought  Calvin  face  to  face  with  the  question  of  his 
life-work  and  the  consequent  further  direction  of  his 
studies.  The  time  for  technical  preparation  for  a. pro- 
fession had  come.  His  father  had  long  intended  him 
for  the  Church  and  had  strongly  desired  that  he  should 
specialise  in  theology ;  ^  but  the  father  now  insisted  with 
equal  positiveness  that  he  should  turn  to  the  study  of 
law.  It  was  an  age  in  which  those  expert  in  legal 
knowledge  and  practice  had  become  the  chief  recipients 
of  important  civil  offices  from  the  crown,  and  a  success- 
ful lawyer  was  well-nigh  certain  of  high  distinction. 
The  Church  had  long  since  ceased  to  be  the  path  to 
royal  favour  that  it  had  been  in  the  middle  ages.  An 
ambitious  father,  and  certainly  Gerard  Cauvin  deserves 
so  to  be  described,  may  well  have  regarded  the  law  as 
offering  the  "surest  road  to  wealth  and  honours".'' 
Gerard  Cauvin,  though  an  officer  of  the  Church,  was 
concerned  wholly  with  its  secularities  and  in  no  sense 


^  Calvin  in  Preface  to  Commentary  on  the  Psalms,  Opera,  xxxi.  22; 
Colladon  and  Beza,  Lives,  Opera,  xxi.  54,  121, 

2  Beza  {Ibid.),  gives  this  as  his  reason;  Calvin  {Opera  xxxi.  22), 
speaks  only  of  wealth. 

44 


[1528-153,^]     Uncertainty  as  to  his  Work    45 

a  clergyman.  Had  he  received  a  full  legal  education, 
such  as  his  clever  son  might  now  enjoy,  could  he  not 
have  risen  to  yet  higher  ''wealth  and  honours"? 

But  whatever  weight  these  considerations  may  have 
had  with  Gerard  Cauvin,  other  reasons,  of  a  more 
personal  nature,  seem  to  have  had  their  share  in  affecting 
his  decision  so  radically  to  alter  his  son's  prospective 
career.  His  own  relations  to  the  Chapter  at  Noyon 
had  been  rapidly  changing  for  the  worse. ^  The  precise 
cause  is  difficult  fully  to  define.  It  may  have  been 
pecuniary  embarrassment  leading  to  mishandHng  of 
trust  funds  which  aroused  the  antagonism  of  the  Chap- 
ter. His  conduct  in  this  respect  was  certainly  irregular 
and  blameworthy.  But  the  case  cannot  have  been  very 
serious  in  the  amount  involved  at  least,  since  his  sons 
had,  apparently,  Httlc  difficulty  in  persuading  the 
Chapter  that  they  could  adjust  it  after  his  death. 
One  suspects  that  Gerard  Cauvin  and  the  Chapter 
had  other  grounds  of  quarrel  than  merely  pecuniary 
questions,  and  that  the  matters  of  accounting  were  de- 
manded and  refused  in  a  spirit  of  ill-will  on  either  side. 
If  this  was  the  case,  the  most  probable  explanation  is  to 
be  sought  in  Gerard  Cauvin' s  devotion  to  the  family  of 
Hangest.  Charles  de  Hangest,  who  had  held  the 
bishopric  of  Noyon  since  1501,  was  a  man  of  high 
character,  much  practical  insight,  and  skill;  but,  on  his 
resignation  in  1525,  he  was  succeeded  by  his  nephew, 
Jean  de  Hangest,  older  brother  of  Calvin's  friend  and 
fellow-student,  Claude.     Jean  was,  indeed,  too  young  to 


^  The    pertinent    records    are    given    by    Lefranc,    Jeunesse,    pp. 
196-199;  see  also  Ibid.,  pp.  15-22. 


46  John  Calvin  [1528- 

enter  on  the  full  duties  of  his  office  for  several  years, 
during  which  he  travelled  and  studied.  He  was 
arbitrary,  rather  petty,  and  quarrelsome,  to  say  nothing 
of  suspicions  entertained  at  a  later  time  as  to  his  ortho- 
doxy; and  it  was  not  long  before  his  relations  to  the 
Chapter  were  strained.  As  an  ardent  supporter  of  the 
house  from  which  the  new  bishop-elect  sprang,  Gerard 
Cauvin  may  have  shared  in  his  unpopularity  with  the 
Chapter.  However  this  may  have  been,  the  records  of 
the  Chapter  show  that  on  June  27,  1527,  Gerard  Cauvin 
was  ordered  to  make  an  accounting  as  executor  of  the 
estate  of  Nicolas  Obry,  a  deceased  chaplain  of  the 
cathedral  at  Noyon.  This  he  failed  to  do;  and  on 
May  15,  1528,  he  was  again  directed  to  make  returns 
on  this  estate,  as  well  as  on  that  of  Michel  Courtin,  who 
had  held  a  similar  office.  His  refusal  led  to  repeated 
action  by  the  Chapter,  and  ultimately  to  his  excom- 
munication. He  was  under  the  ban  at  the  time  of  his 
death,  and  it  was  only  at  the  intercession  of  his  sons 
that  his  body  was  allowed  burial  in  holy  ground.  One 
thus  in  open  quarrel  with  the  ecclesiastical  authorities 
of  his  city  would  certainly  be  disposed  to  see  in  some 
other  profession  than  the  service  of  the  Church  the  best 
road  of  advancement  for  his  son. 

How  the  young  student  himself  regarded  the  change 
of  plans  thus  effected  is  a  question  not  altogether  easy 
to  answer.  His  earhest  biographers,  Beza  and  Colla- 
don,  affirm  that  his  mind  had  already  been  turned  from 
scholastic  theology  and  that  he  had  begun  to  read  the 
Scriptures  and  feel  that  the  Roman  worship  was 
superstitious,  thanks  to  the  influence  of  his  friend  and 


1533]      Uncertainty  as  to  his  Work       47 

relative,  Pierre  Robert  Olivetan.'  But  Calvin's  own 
statement  regarding  his  entrance  upon  the  study  of 
law  ^  implies  that  he  did  so  in  obedience  to  his  father's 
wishes  rather  than  from  any  desire  of  his  own. 

The  decision  that  Calvin  should  study  law  led  to  a 
change  of  Universities,  for  Paris  had  no  teacher  of  juris- 
prudence worthy  to  be  compared  with  Pierre  Taisan 
de  I'Estoile,  the  leading  lawyer  of  France,^  who  had 
been  an  ornament  of  the  Faculty  of  the  University  of 
Orleans  since  1512,  and  was  now  forty-eight  years  of 
age.  A  man  of  strongly  conservative  opinions,  of  pro- 
found learning,  and  thorough  Catholic  orthodoxy,  the 
death  of  his  wife  had  led  him  into  clerical  orders,  while 
continuing  his  professorship;  and,  in  February,  1528, 
just  as  Calvin  was  about  to  go  to  Orleans,  he  had  been 
urgent  in  demanding  repressive  action  against  the  rising 
Protestants  at  the  Council  of  Sens.^  The  jealousy  of 
the  University  of  Paris,  proud  of  its  theologic  eminence, 
had  prevented  the  establishment  of  chairs  of  divinity  at 
Orleans,  with  the  result  that  law  was  there  vigorously 
cultivated,  no  less  than  eight  ''doctors,"  of  whom 
I'Estoile  was  by  far  the  most  noted,  being  charged  with 
its  exposition. 

In  sharp  contrast  to  the  clerical,  and  often  ascetic, 
atmosphere  of  the  University  of  Paris,  such  as  had 
surrounded  Calvin  at  the  College  de   Montaigu,  the 


1  opera,  xxi.  29,  54,  121.  The  fact  or  the  extent  of  the  influence 
thus  ascribed  to  Olivetan  will  be  discussed  in  considering  Calvin's 
conversion. 

2  Opera,  xxxi.  22;  see,  also,  Kampschulte,  i.  226. 

3  Beza,  Opera,  xxi.  121,  122. 

4Lefranc,  Jeunesse,  p.  72;   Doumergue,  i.  130. 


48  John   Calvin  [1528- . 

University  of  Orleans  had  the  repute  of  being  a  delight- 
ful and  rather  easy-going  place  of  study ;  ^  and  certainly 
this  unascetic  atmosphere,  and  the  advanced  character 
of  his  own  studies,  permitted  Calvin  to  regulate  his  life 
more  as  he  might  v^ish  than  had  been  possible  in  the 
undergraduate  days  and  under  the  severer  discipline  of 
the  College  de  Montaigu  at  Paris.  Yet  if  Calvin  was 
now  released  from  the  stricter  rules  imposed  on  under- 
graduate Hfe  at  Paris,  he  was  strenuous  far  beyond 
what  was  wise  in  his  employment  of  his  own  time. 
Nicolas  CoUadon  recorded,^  in  1565,  that  those  then 
living  who  had  known  Calvin  at  Orleans  remembered 
that,  after  a  very  light  supper,  he  often  studied  till  mid- 
night and  then  waking  early  in  the  morning  would  lie 
abed  recalHng  and  thinking  over  what  he  had  learned 
the  evening  before.  Undoubtedly,  as  Beza,^  as  well  as 
Colladon,  points  out,  these  protracted  vigils  strength- 
ened his  remarkably  retentive  memory  as  well  as 
greatly  enlarged  his  erudition;  but  they  also  gave  rise 
to  the  dyspepsia  4  which  ever  after  pursued  him,  and 
was  the  prime  cause  of  the  ill  health  of  his  later  life. 
BrilHant  as  a  student,  his  keen  and  ready  powers  of 
argument,  his  clearness  of  analysis,  and  charm  of  dic- 
tion won  him  distinction  in  debate,  and  his  repute  was 
speedily  such  that  on  several  occasions  he  took  the  place 
of  one  or  another  of  his  instructors,  who  found  them- 
selves unable  to  meet  their  classes. 


^  Lefranc,  (Jeunesse,  p.    74),   compares  it  to   Heidelberg,  Jena  or 
Gottingen. 

2  Opera,  xxi.  55. 

3  Ibid.,  122. 

^"Vcntriculi  imhecillitatem  contraxit,"  says  Baza,  Ibid. 


1533]     Uncertainty   as    to    his    Work       49 

While  thus  winning  reputation  by  his  success  in  the 
study  of  law,  Calvin  found  time,  however,  for  the  de- 
velopment of  his  knowledge  of  the  classics.  The 
humanistic  spirit  of  the  age  strongly  moved  him.  His 
intercourse  with  Cordier  and  the  Cops  at  Paris  must 
have  served  as  a  powerful  antidote  to  the  scholasticism 
of  Bdda  and  the  College  de  Montaigu.  That  interest 
in  letters  now  probably  attracted  the  friendship  of 
one  to  whose  stimulus  Calvin  was  to  owe  much, — 
Melchior  Wolmar.  A  German  by  nativity,  having 
been  born,  in  1496,  in  Rothweil,  a  town  of  Wiirtemberg, 
Wolmar  had  studied  at  Bern,  Freiburg,  and  Paris, 
where  he  was  greatly  distinguished,  being  first  on  the 
Hst  of  Licentiates  of  Arts.'  His  religious  opinions,  which 
were,  apparently,  incHned  to  Lutheranism,  made  Paris 
an  uncomfortable  place  of  sojourn,  ^  and  he  estabHshed 
a  boys'  boarding-school  in  the  freer  atmosphere  of  Or- 
leans, of  which  the  nine-year-old  Theodore  Beza  be- 
came one  of  the  pupils  in  1528.  To  Wolmar  Calvin 
subsequently  owed  his  initiation  into  Greek  Hterature. 
His  possible  indebtedness  to  this  kindly  German  teacher 
for  his  religious  development  will  be  discussed  later  in 
our  story;  but  to  Wohnar,  no  less  than  to  Cordier, 
Calvin  looked  back  with  grateful  recollection  as  to  one 
who  had  been  powerfully  influential  in  his  scholarly 
development. 

Busied  with  the  law  course  and  continuing  doubt- 
less his  studies  in  the  field  of  letters,  Calvin's  days 
at  Orleans  can  have  left  him  httle  leisure.     But  even 


1  Herminjard,  ii.  280,  281,  note. 

2  Bulaeus,  Hist.  Univ.  Paris.,  vi.  963. 


50  John  Calvin  [1528- 

when  thus  burdened,  he  was  no  hermit.  Though  his 
intimate  circle  of  acquaintances  at  Orleans  seems  to 
have  been  Hmited,  a  warm  attachment  united  him  to 
those  friends  whom  he  came  to  know  at  this  epoch, 
Francois  Daniel  and  Francois  de  Connam,  fellow-stu- 
dents, and  a  somewhat  older  young  lawyer,  Nicolas 
Duchemin,  with  whom  he  lodged  during  part,  at  least, 
of  his  stay  at  the  University.  Connam  was  from  Paris, 
where  his  father  was  one  of  the  Masters  of  the  Chamber 
of  Accounts.  Daniel  was  a  well-to-do  native  of  Or- 
leans, having  two  brothers  and  several  sisters,  who 
formed  a  pleasant  family  circle  into  which  Calvin  was 
welcomed.  To  these  friends  Calvin's  earliest  surviving 
letters  were  addressed,  and  in  them  he  expresses  him- 
self in  terms  of  warmest  affection.^  His  relations  were 
evidently  more  than  a  common  interest  in  the  same 
studies,  which  was  doubtless  the  connecting  Hnk  with 
which  the  acquaintances  began;  and  though  their  sep- 
arate walks  in  Ufe,  and  the  fact  that  these  friends  re- 
mained in  the  communion  of  the  Roman  Church,  led 
to  the  cessation  of  this  correspondence  after  a  few  years, 
Calvin  improved  an  opportunity  to  do  a  service  to  a 
son  of  Francois  Daniel,  as  an  occasion  to  renew  the 
correspondence  with  the  father,  in  1559  and  1560,  on 
the  old  friendly  footing.  =^ 

Though  Calvin  thought  highly  of  the  instruction  given 
by  Pierre  de  I'Estoile,  his  interest  was  aroused  by  the 
reports  that  became  current  among  the  students  at 
Orleans  of  the  teaching  given  by  the  great  Italian  jurist 


I  E.g.  Opera,  xb.  3,  9-30. 

3  Opera,  xvii.  585,  681,  xviii.  16. 


1533]     Uncertainty  as  to  his  Work        51 

Andrea  Alciati  (1492-1550),  who  had  begun  his  work 
in  the  University  at  Bourges  on  April  29,  1529.'  Just 
when  he  made  his  transfer  thither  is  unknown,  but  the 
very  probable  suggestion  has  been  made  by  one  of  his 
most  recent  biographers  that  the  autumn  of  1529  saw 
him  matriculated  at  Bourges  and  in  Alciati's  class- 
room.'' His  friend  Daniel  made  the  same  change  of 
Universities;  and  the  satisfaction  of  his  stay  there  was 
doubtless  much  enhanced  when  Wolmar  removed 
thither,  also,  late  in  1530.  The  University  of  Bourges 
was  a  comparatively  recent  foundation,  having  been 
privileged  in  1463  and  1464.  It  had  greatly  declined; 
but  under  the  fostering  care  of  Marguerite  d'Angou- 
leme,  mistress  of  the  duchy  of  Berry,  of  which  Bourges 
was  the  capital,  able  teachers,  like  Alciati  and  Wohnar, 
were  being  induced  to  settle  there,  an  atmosphere  of 
considerable  intellectual  and  religious  freedom  pre- 
vailed, and  the  scholastic  reputation  of  the  University 
was  rapidly  rising.  Alciati,  in  particular,  was  a  real 
reformer  in  juridical  science.  Law  was  not  for  him, 
as  for  I'Estoile,  a  mere  dry  matter  of  arbitrary  detail; 
it  was  capable  of  explication  by  great  general  princi- 
ples, and  of  illumination  by  history  and  literature.  In 
his  teaching  it  became  a  science  rather  than  a  mere  mass 
of  knowledge.  Such  a  training  must  have  been  of  the 
highest  value  in  supplementing  the  teaching  which 
Calvin  had  received  at  Orleans.  Yet,  contrary  to  one's 
presuppositions  as  to  what  would  have  been  the  case, 
Calvin  preferred  the  severely  churchly  and  rather  medi- 


Opera,  xxi.  55,  122;   Doumergue,  i.  1 41-143. 
Doumergue,  i.  141. 


52 


John  Calvin  [1528- 


geval  instructor  at  Orleans  to  the  brilliant  innovating 
Italian  at  Bourges.  In  the  controversy  that  sprang 
up  between  their  partisans  his  friend,  Duchemin,  pub- 
lished a  defence  of  I'Estoile,  and  Calvin  contributed 
to  the  volume  a  brief  preface, — his  first  writing  to  ap- 
pear in  print. ^ 

Calvin's  work  seems  to  have  gone  forward  at  Bourges 
on  the  same  Hnes  as  at   Orleans,  and  he  now  began 
with  Woknar   the  study  of    Greek.^     His    time   was 
still  divided  between  the  law  and  literature,  and   he 
regarded   anything    that  took    him   from    his  studies 
with  impatience.     But  an  event  of  no  little  significance 
occurred  in  the  spring  of  1531.     Calvin  had  been  in 
Paris,  probably  during  vacation,  in  March  of  that  year; 
and  had  thence  apparently  gone  to  Noyon,  either  for  a 
visit  or  summoned  by  bad   news   from    home.     From 
his  native  city  he  wrote  to  his  friend  Duchemin  under 
date  of  May  14th  that  he  was  detained  by  the  ilhiess  of 
his  father,  which,  though  at  first  not  hopeless,  was  now 
evidently  fatal.^    Twelve  days  later  Gerard  Cauvin's 
death  occurred.    The  baldness  with  which  he  announces 
the  news  to  his  friend  gives  the  reader  a  sense  of  shock. 


1  Duchemin's  work  was  written  in  1529,  and  published  in  1531  at 
Paris  under  the  title  Antapologia  adversus  Aurelii  Alhucii  Dejen- 
sionem  pro  And.  Alciato  contra  D.  Petrum  Stellam.  Calvin  dated 
the  Preface  from  Paris  March  6,  [1531],  and  saw  the  book  through 
the  press  for  his  friend.  The  Preface  is  given  in  Herminjard,  ii.  314- 
318;  also  Opera,  ix.  785. 

2  Calvin's  dedication  of  his  Commentary  on  II.  Corinthians  to 
Wohnar  in  1546,  Opera,  xii.  364,  365,  makes  it  evident  that  it  was 
but  a  beginning.  On  the  time  see  Beza,  Life,  of  1564,  Ihid.,  xxi, 
29,30;  and  Miiller,  Calvins  Bekehrung,  pp.  194,  201. 

2  Opera,  xb.  8;  Herminjard,  ii.  332. 


COURT  AND  STAIRWAY  OF  THE  "  MAISON    DE  CALVIN  "   IN   NOYON. 
(Reproduced  by  permission  of  Georges  Compiegne,  Noyon.) 


1533]      Uncertainty  as  to  his  Work        53 

The  contrast  between  the  bare  statement  of  his  father's 
approaching  mortahty  and  his  address  to  Duchemin 
as  "my  friend,  dearer  than  my  Kfe,"  is  striking.  Yet  it 
must  be  remembered,  in  partial  explanation  at  least, 
that  Calvin  had  seen  Httle  of  his  father  since  he  left 
home,  a  boy  of  fourteen,  nearly  eight  years  before;  and 
there  can  have  been  no  very  deep  sympathy  between 
the  highly  studious,  sensitive,  cultivated  young  lawyer 
and  his  ambitious,  acquisitive,  self-made  father.  Yet 
he  owed  a  great  debt  to  Gerard  Cauvin,  whose 
highest  and  most  unselfish  desire  seems  to  have  been 
to  secure  for  his  sons  advantages  which  he  had  not 
enjoyed. 

The  death  of  Calvin's  father  removed  from  him  the 
parental  pressure  that  had  kept  him  to  the  study  of 
law;  but  not  till  that  course  had  been  substantially, 
if  not  wholly,  completed,  for  a  legal  document  of  Feb- 
ruary 14,  1532,  describes  him  as  licentie  es  loix^^  and 
this  degree  may  have  been  obtained  some  months 
earlier.  An  obscure  passage  in  a  letter  written  by  his 
friend  Francois  Daniel  in  the  previous  December  im- 
phes  that  Daniel,  at  least,  had  hopes  that  Calvin  might 
obtain  some  appointment  befitting  his  legal  talents 
from  an  urmamed  bishop,  probably  his  acquaintance, 
Jean  de  Hangest,  bishop  of  Noyon.  But,  meanwhile, 
within  a  month  of  his  father's  death,  Calvin  had  be- 
taken himself  to  Paris,  and  now  devoted  himself  to  the 
study  of  the  classics,  with  all  the  zeal  of  an  eager  dis- 
ciple of  the  "new  learning."  Many  reasons  have  been 
given  for  this  change  of  the  scene  of  his  studies.     It  is 


^  Le  Vasseur,  Annales,  p.  1169;   Lefranc,  Jeunesse,  p.  202. 


54  John  Calvin  t^s^s- 

certain  that  his  pursuit  of  the  law  was  due  to  his  father's 
desires  rather  than  to  his  own,  and  it  has  been  suggested 
that  he  recoiled  from  pubKc  conflicts  at  the  bar;^  that 
he  found  no  suitable  opening  as  a  lawyer,  ^  or  that  he 
wanted  to  give  himself  to  the  solution  of  personal  ques- 
tions, primarily  those  of  religion.^    A  sufficient  reason 
may  be  seen,  however,  in  his  desire  to  avail  himself  of 
the  revolution  in  teaching  that  had  just  taken  place  at 
Paris.     Moved  by  Guillaume  Bude  and  by  Guillaume 
Cop,  both  earnest  humanists,  Francis  I.  had  appointed 
in  March,  1530,  a  group  of  ''Royal  Lecturers,"  to  give 
instruction  in  Greek,  Hebrew,  and  Mathematics.     This 
event,  which,  as  has  already  been  noted,  is  regarded 
as  the  foundation  of  the  College  de  France  ,4  was  of 
capital  significance  in  the  history  of  French  education. 
It  was  the  triumph  of  the  "new  learning,"  which  thus 
made  a  place  for  itself  such  as  it  had  never  before  pos- 
sessed in  France.     And  who  would  be  more  wiUing  to 
avail  himself  of  the  privileges  thus  offered  by  the  royal 
bounty  than  a  student  whose   interest   in  Latin  had 
been  awakened  by  a  Cordier,  and  who  had  found  time 
amid  the  exactions  of  a  course  in  law  to  pursue  Greek 
with  a  Wolmar? 

At  Paris  Calvin  now  lodged  in  the  College  Fortet, 
opposite  his  familiar  College  de  Montaigu.s     Under  the 


1  Henri  Lecoultre,  in  the  Revue  detheologie  et  de  philosophie,  Lau- 
sanne, for  1891,  p.  53. 

2  A.  Lang,  Die  Bekehrung  Johannes  Calvins,  Leipzig,  1897,  p.  8. 

3  Doumergue,  i.  196. 
^Anie,  p.  7. 

5  Lefranc,  Jeunesse,  p.  89. 


1533]      Uncertainty  as  to  his  Work        55 

guidance  of  the  marvellously  wide-read  "Royal  Lect- 
urer," Pierre  Danes,  he  pursued  eagerly  the  study  of 
Greek,  and  with  Danbs's  colleague,  Francois  Vatable, 
he  began  that  of  Hebrew\'  Engaged  in  congenial 
studies,  his  life  in  Paris  must  have  been  very  pleasant, 
in  spite  of  the  ill  health  from  which  he  occasionally 
suffered.  He  was  in  constant  communication  with 
Duchemin  and  Daniel,  and  saw  them  from  time  to 
time  in  the  city.  His  younger  brother,  Antoine,  was 
a  resident  of  Paris.  For  Nicolas  Cop  he  had  a  w^arm 
friendship.  It  was  an  agreeable  and  a  relatively  large 
circle  of  young  humanists  and  jurists  of  which  Calvin 
now  made  a  part.  But,  while  Calvin  thus  rejoiced  in 
a  circle  of  friends  so  considerable  that  the  mere  visits 
of  greeting  filled  four  days  on  his  arrival  in  Paris,  "^  his 
nature  was  sensitive  and  exacting,  and  he  seems  to 
have  been  quick  to  feel  any  real  or  fancied  w^ant  of 
friendliness  on  the  part  of  those  dear  to  him.-^  Yet, 
aside  from  these  occasional  slight  lacerations  of  a  some- 
what demanding  friendship,  and  the  limitations  due 
to  his  uncertain  health,  Calvin's  chief  worry  in  this  re- 
latively unburdened  portion  of  his  life  must  have  been 
caused  by  the  affairs  of  his  older  brother,  Charles,  who 
had  remained  at  Noyon.  So  negligently  did  Charles 
discharge  his  duties  as  Calvin's  business  representative 
in  the  collection  of  income  due  from  the  Parisian  stu- 
dents' ecclesiastical  holdings,  and  in  the  settlement  of 


^  Doumergue,  i.  205;   A.  J.  Baumgartner,  Ca/'ym  hebraisant,  Paris, 
1889,  p.  14. 
*  Opera,  xb.  9. 
3  See  Lefranc,  Jeimesse,  pp.  95,  96;   Opera,  xb.  11,  13,  21,  26,  etc. 


56  John    Calvin  [1525- 

their  father's  estate,  that  Calvin,  on  one  occasion  at 
least,  had  to  borrow  from  Duchemin,^ — a  thing  evi- 
dently galling  to  his  pride  to  do. 

Charles's  financial  slowness  was  a  lesser  cause  of 
anxiety,  it  may  be  beheved.  than  the  difficulties  into 
which  he  fell  with  the  Chapter  at  Noyon,  which  began 
before  the  death  of  Gerard  Cauvin,  and  continued  in 
growing  aggravation  till  his  own  decease.^  The  cause 
seems  at  first  to  have  involved  no  question  of  religious 
opinion.  Excited,  it  may  be,  by  the  discussions  arising 
from  his  father's  quarrel  with  the  Chapter,  though  of  this 
there  is  no  definite  proof,  he  had  a  personal  encounter 
with  Antoine  Tourneur,  a  beadle  of  the  Noyon 
cathedral,  regarding  which  event  the  Chapter  ordered 
an  investigation  on  February  11,  1531.  Only  two 
days  later  he  was  again  under  discipline  for  having 
struck  one  of  the  clergy.  By  this  act  the  quick-tem- 
pered young  man  incurred  excommunication;  and  this 
was  his  condition  when  his  father  died,  also  excom- 
municate. Apparently  he  made  no  attempt  to  remedy 
it;  but  treated  the  Chapter  with  contempt,  procuring 
ordination  to  the  subdiaconate  in  spite  of  his  want  of 
ecclesiastical  standing.  On  September  15,  1531,  when 
his  brother  John  had  been  in  Paris  engaged  in 
humanistic  studies  for  about  three  months,  Charles 
.was  forbidden  entrance  to  the  cathedral  by  the  Chapter, 


1  Opera,  xb.  17. 

2  The  matter  has  been  discussed  by  Lefranc,  Jeunesse,  pp. 
18-21,  197-201,  210,  where  extracts  from  the  registers  are  given. 
Doumergue,  i.  22-25.  On  the  dates,  see  Miiller,  Calvins  Bekehrung, 
pp.  220-223. 


1533]      Uncertainty  as  to  his  Work        57 

with  which  he  continued  in  full  quarrel.  So  the  matter 
remained  during  the  rest  of  John  Calvin's  student  days; 
but  in  May,  1534,  a  month  of  great  importance  in  the 
younger  brother's  life,  as  there  will  be  occasion  to  sec, 
Charles  was  accused  of  a  heretical  opinion,  regarding 
which  such  secrecy  was  observed  that  it  is  impossible 
to  say  how  far  his  revolt  against  the  Roman  Church 
may  have  gone.  In  its  maintenance  Charles  per- 
sisted; and  at  his  death,  October  31,  1537,  he  refused 
the  Roman  sacraments  and  was,  in  consequence,  bur- 
ied beneath  the  gallows  at  Noyon.  Charles  Cauvin's 
"heresy"  did  not  manifest  itself  till  after  his  brother 
had  broken  with  the  Roman  Church;  it  was  quite  as 
probably  due  to  John's  influence  over  him  as  in  any 
way  a  cause  of  John's  adhesion  to  Protestantism.  He 
seems  to  have  been  of  coarser  fibre  than  his  more 
famous  brother.  He  had  none  of  John  Calvin's  ca- 
pacity for  leadership.  And  his  earher,  and  more  per- 
sonal, quarrels  with  the  Noyon  Chapter,  which  occurred 
while  John  was  still  a  student,  show  the  contentious 
rivalries  of  administrative  jealousy  in  a  small  city,  or 
at  most  a  fihal  participation  in  his  father's  quarrel, 
rather  than  the  presence  of  deep  rehgious  conviction^ 
such  as  was  to  lead  John  Calvin  to  his  break  with  Rome. 
During  these  months  at  Paris  in  the  latter  half  of 
1 53 1  and  the  beginning  of  1532,  Calvin  had  not  only 
been  studying  Greek  and  Hebrew  under  Danes  and 
Vatable,  he  had  been  hard  at  work  upon  his  first  book, — 
his    Commentary   on   Seneca^ s  Treatise   on  Clemency.'^ 


^  It  bore  the  title  of  L.  Annei  Senecae,  Romani  Senaioris,  ac  Phi- 
losophi  Clarissimi,  Libri  duo  de  dementia,   ad  Neronem  Ccesarem: 


58  John  Calvin  [152s- 

Calvin's  attention  seems  to  have  been  called  to  the 
theme  by  Erasmus's  edition  of  Seneca's  works,  pub- 
lished in  1529,  in  which  the  great  humanist  has  expressed 
a  critical,  and,  as  it  seemed  to  Calvin,  a  too  disparaging, 
judgment  of  the  Roman  Stoic  Philosopher.^  All  the 
eagerness  of  a  young  scholar's  enthusiasm — the  author 
was  not  yet  twenty-three — went  out  to  it,  as  it  came  from 
the  press  in  April,  1532.  The  expense,  which  he  had 
paid  from  his  own  pocket,  had  been  a  heavy  draft  upon 
his  means,  and  he  sought  the  good  offices  of  his  friends 
to  secure  the  distribution  of  copies  in  influential  quar- 
ters, and  to  let  him  know  its  reception.^  The  impression 
upon  the  scholarly  world  which  his  volume  might  make, 
was  to  him  a  matter  of  great,  and  natural,  concern. 
Calvin's  Commentary  is  a  work  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty-six  pages  in  quarto.  Beginning  with  the  dedica- 
tion to  his  boyhood  companion  and  student  friend, 
Claude  de  Hangest,  to  which  reference  has  already  been 
made,  there  follows  a  short  life  of  Seneca,  "compiled 
from  good  authors,"  and  then  a  series  of  brief  chapters, 
each  having  at  its  head  a  consecutive  section  of  the 
text  of  Seneca's  essay,  but  being  made  up  chiefly  of 
notes  on  the  passage  quoted.  These  comments  are  of 
all  kinds,  explanatory,  historical,  critical,  exegetical; 
but  chiefly  philological  and  philosophical,  and  illus- 
trative by  constant  quotation  of  the  linguistic  usage 


Joannis  Calvini  Noviodunaei  CommerUariis  Illustraii.     Paris,  1532. 
It  is  printed  in  Opera,  v,  1-162 

^  Opera,  v.  6,  7.     Henri  Lecoultre  has  a  very  valuable  discussion 
of  the  whole  work,  Revtie   de  theol.  et  de  philos.,  Lausanne,   1891, 

PP-  57-77- 

2  Opera,  xb.  19-22. 


1533]      Uncertainty  as  to  his  Work        59 

of  the  Roman  philosopher.  From  the  point  of  view  of 
scholarship  the  young  author  had  nothing  to  fear. 
Written  in  a  Latin  style  of  singular  clarity  and  brill- 
iancy, with  not  a  little  of  the  lawyer's  sense  for  lucid 
presentation  and  cogent  argument,  his  book  showed 
a  range  of  reading  almost  marvellous  in  a  man  of  Cal- 
vin's years.  This  impression  of  precocity  is  but  in- 
tensified when  it  is  remembered  how  comparatively 
recently  he  had  begun  the  study  of  Greek.  The  text 
is  illuminated  by  citations  from  fifty-six  Latin  and 
twenty-two  Greek  classical  writers,  seven  Fathers  of  the 
Church,  and  the  humanists  of  his  own  age.^  Many  of 
these  references  are  to  a  number  of  works  by  the  same 
author;  for  instance  to  thirty-three  of  the  orations, 
treatises,  and  letters  of  Cicero,  or  to  five  of  the  plays 
of  Terence.  Certainly  those  long  hours  of  study  and 
reflection  at  Orleans  and  Bourges,  and  of  work  under 
the  "Royal  Lecturers"  at  Paris,  had  had  their  abundant 
fruitage  in  the  erudition  of  which  the  young  humanist 
revealed  himself  so  easily  the  master.  Nor  is  the  work 
less  remarkable  for  its  maturity  and  poise  of  judgment. 
There  is  in  it  almost  no  suggestion  of  a  youthful  effort. 
Perhaps  an  exception  is  to  be  seen  in  a  slap  at  his 
former  teacher,  Alciati,''  whom  he  and  his  friend  Du- 
chemin  had  criticised;  but  the  opinions  expressed  are, 
almost  universally,  those  of  one  who  seems  to  have 
thought  long  and  wisely. 

Conspicuous   throughout   the   volume   are   Calvin's 


^  Lecoultre,  op.  cit.,  pp.  76,  77,  gives  an  approximately  full  list,  and 
remarks,  (p.  59),  ^'c'est  en  effet  un  puits  (T erudition.^* 
2  Opera,  v.  146. 


6o  John  Calvin  [1528- 

high  sense  of  moral  values,  and  conception  of  the  sin- 
fulness of  conduct  not  in  accordance  with  them.  His 
sympathies  are  drawn  to  the  Roman  writer  who  laid 
such  stress  on  moral  action.  It  is  because  Seneca  is 
so  conscious  of  the  importance  of  right  ethical  principles 
in  human  Hfe  that  Calvin  is  attracted  to  him.  Clemency 
and  justice,  he  holds,  are  virtues  of  the  first  order; 
and,  however  exalted  the  prince  or  magistrate,  it  is 
only  as  he  illustrates  them  in  his  conduct  that  he  proves 
himself  the  friend  and  not  the  enemy  of  those  whom 
he  judges  or  rules.  Moreover,  with  all  his  sympathy 
for  Seneca,  Calvin  has  sufficient  independence  sharply 
to  criticise  the  Stoic  philosophy.  He  finds  its  insen- 
sibility abhorrent  to  the  general  sentiment  of  mankind. 
It  is  human,  he  declares,  to  be  affected  by  grief,  to  feel, 
to  resist,  to  receive  consolations,  to  shed  tears.  The 
individual  isolation  of  Stoicism  he  dislikes.  Even  to 
follow  conscience  is  not  sufficient,  if  such  following 
leads  a  man  to  neglect  the  good  name  and  welfare  of 
his  neighbour, — a  doctrine  which  Calvin  declares  to  be 
the  teaching  of  "our  religion,"  that  is,  of  Christianity. 
Here,  then,  is  the  treatise  of  one  who  knows  and  ad- 
mires the  world  of  classical  antiquity,  but  who  feels  the 
compelling  force  of  moral  law,  is  desirous  to  apply  it 
to  his  own  age,  and  is  convinced  that  union  and  mutual 
dutifulness,  not  isolation,  even  that  of  individualistic 
philosophic  rectitude,  are  the  proper  conditions  of  man- 
kind. 

Did  Calvin  have  any  purpose  in  writing  this  remark- 
able treatise  beyond  that  of  illuminating  an  author  who, 
he  felt,  had  not  been  rightly  appreciated,  and  winning 


[1533      Uncertainty  as  to  his  Work        6i 

for  himself,  in  so  doing,  an  honourable  name  in  the 
world  of  scholarship?  From  the  time  that  Papirc 
Masson  wrote  his  sketch  of  Calvin  (about  1583)  ^  to  the 
present  there  have  been  those  who  have  asserted  that  a 
further  purpose  was  to  move  Francis  I.  to  a  more  kindly 
treatment  of  his  Protestant  subjects.  This  is  the  view 
of  Henry, "^  and,  in  a  modified  form,  of  Doumergue.^ 
On  the  other  hand,  Kampschulte,-*  the  Strassburg 
editors  of  Calvin's  works,^  Lecoultre^  and  Fairbairn,^ 
see  in  it  no  evidence  of  any  such  ulterior  or  disguised 
purpose.  In  that  conclusion  the  writer  must  agree. 
Had  it  not  been  for  Calvin's  later  history  no  one  would 
probably  have  seen  in  this  noble  Commentary  more 
than  the  work  of  an  unusually  high-minded,  ethically 
strenuous  humanist.  Nor  would  one  have  looked  upon 
its  author  as  specially  interested  in  reHgious  problems. 
The  Bible  is  cited  but  three  times,  and  then  in  a  rela- 
tively incidental  manner.  It  may  be  too  much  to  say, 
with  one  of  the  most  careful  of  recent  students,  that 
Calvin  then  knew  only  the  Vulgate;^  but  it  is  not  un- 
warranted to  affirm  with  him  that  the  Bible  had  no 
such  attraction  for  the  youthful  commentator  on  Seneca 
as   was   possessed    by   the  great  writers   of   classical 


^  Elogiorum,   pars  secunda,   Paris,    1638,  p.   403;    Doumergue,   i. 
214,  529. 

"^Das  Lehen  Johann  Calvins,  i.  52-55. 

3 1.  215,  216. 

41.238. 

^  Opera,  v.  xxxii. 

*  Op.  cit.,  p.  72. 

^  The  Cambridge  Modern  History,  ii.  352. 

8  A.  Lang,  Die  Bekehrung  Johannes  Calvins,  p.   29;  but  comp. 
Doumergue,  i.  219. 


62  John  Calvin  [1528- 

antiquity.  There  is  no  impression  that  can  be  traced 
unmistakably  to  the  burning  religious  controversies  of 
the  hour.  If  Calvin  was  interested  in  them  at  the  time 
that  he  wrote  this  volume  that  interest  does  not  appear 
in  its  pages. 

Calvin's  life  during  the  months  immediately  follow- 
ing the  publication  of  the  Commentary  just  considered 
is  difficult  to  trace  in  detail;  but  one  or  two  features  are 
fortunately  made  evident  by  letters  and  documents 
which  have  survived.  The  correspondence  with  his 
friend,  Daniel,  shows  that  in  May,  1532,  Calvin  was 
planning  soon  to  make  the  journey  to  Orleans,  and  to 
bring  with  him  a  copy  of  the  Bible, — -possibly  Le  Fevre's 
translation,  which  had  been  printed  at  Antwerp  late 
in  1530.^  Had  these  letters  been  all  the  evidence,  a  stay 
at  Orleans  longer  than  a  brief  visit  would  hardly  be 
conjectured.  But  documents  in  a  legal  action  dated 
May  10  and  June  11,  1533,^  show  not  merely  that  he 
was  then  at  Orleans,  but  that  he  was  holding  the  office 
of  Suhstitut  Annuel  de  Procureur  for  the  nation  of 
Picardy, — one  of  the  ten  "  nations  "  in  which  the  students 
of  the  University  of  Orleans  were  organised,  and  com- 
posed of  course  of  those  from  Calvin's  native  region  of 
France.  As  annual  representative  of  the  Attorney,  or, 
more  properly.  Dean,  of  the  Picard  students,  Calvin  pre- 
sumably remained  some  months  at  Orleans,  and  as  he 
was  present  at  a  meeting  of  the  Cathedral  Chapter  at 


^  Opera,  xb.  20-22;  Herminjard,  ii.  388,  418-421;  Hauck's 
Realencyklopddie  fiir  proL  Theologie,  iii.  130,  131. 

2  Doinel,  Le  bulletin  de  la  Soc.  de  Vhistoire  du  Prot.  Jrangais,  for 
1877,  pp.  174-9;   Lefranc,  Jeunesse,  pp.  105,  203,  204. 


1533]      Uncertainty  as  to  his  Work        63 

Noyon  on  August  23,  1533,  when  prayers  were  ordered 
on  account  of  the  plague/  and  had  settled  once  more  in 
Paris  by  the  following  October,^  the  supposition  seems 
well-nigh  certain  that  he  prolonged  his  stay  and 
spent  a  year,  from  the  early  summer  of  1532  to  that  of 
1533,  once  more  as  a  student  at  Orleans.  It  was 
probably  further  discipline  in  the  law  that  attracted 
him;  for  the  opportunities  to  continue  his  humanistic 
studies  were  much  better  at  Paris.  It  has  been  sug- 
gested that  he  desired  the  degree  of  doctor,  he  may 
have  wished  to  be  with  his  friends  Daniel  and  Duche- 
min;  but  all  is  conjecture.  The  only  fact  that  can  be 
confidently  affirmed  is  that  Calvin  had  not  yet  found 
his  life-work ;  and  some  reasons  why  this  discovery  was 
not  easy  at  this  time  will  appear  in  the  consideration  of 
his  conversion.  The  law  and  the  path  of  classic  scholar- 
ship he  had  tried  successively  and  alternately.  He  had 
greatly  distinguished  himself  in  both;  but  he  was 
not  yet  satisfied  in  his  own  mind.  He  had  not  yet 
come  to  peace  with  himself  as  to  what  his  path  in  Hfe 
should  be. 

It  was  while  serving  as  a  representative  of  the  Picard 
students  of  the  University  of  Orleans  that  Calvin  be- 
came engaged  in  his  official  capacity  in  a  curious  law- 
suit illustrative  of  surviving  mediaeval  conditions.  A 
count  of  Beaugency,  having  recovered  from  a  severe 
illness,  three-quarters  of  a  century  before  Calvin's  so- 
journ, had  then  attributed  his  cure  to  the  favour  of  St. 
Firmin,  a  missionary  martyr  of   the  seventh  century. 


^  Doinel,   Lefranc,  Jeunesse,  p.  200. 
^  Opera,  xb.  27-30. 


64  John  Calvin  [1528- 

often  called  the  "Apostle  of  Picardy."  In  recognition 
of  the  blessing  received/  he  had  acknowledged  himself 
the  vassal  of  the  saint  for  certain  properties  near 
Beaugency.  Of  the  revenues  thus  pledged  by  the 
count,  a  portion  came  ultimately  to  be  paid  to  the 
"nation"  of  Picards  at  Orleans,  which  held  St.  Firmin 
in  reverence  as  its  patron.  Payment  was  due  annu- 
ally on  January  13th,  in  the  form  of  a  niaille  d^or  de 
Florence,  that  is  a  medal  or  specially  struck  coin  of  a 
fixed  weight  of  gold,  bearing  the  fleur-de-Hs  as  well  as 
an  image  of  John  the  Baptist.  It  was  of  no  great 
intrinsic  value,  but  its  reception  was  the  occasion  of  a 
much  prized  and  rather  Bacchanalian  student  festival 
in  which  Picardy  was  duly  glorified  with  oratory  and 
feasting.  For  some  reason,  payment  was  refused  in 
January,  1533,  and  a  legal  action,  which  ultimately 
proved  successful,  was  therefore  begun  by  the  Picard 
students  before  the  Parlement  of  Paris,  authority  being 
given  by  successive  meetings  of  the  "nation"  under 
Calvin's  chairmanship.  The  expenses  were  in  part 
paid  by  a  tax  on  the  students;  but  in  part,  also,  by  the 
sale  of  two  silver  vases  which  belonged  to  the  "nation" 
and  were  not  improbably  used  in  the  services  of  the 
Church  of  Notre-Dame  des  Bonnes-Nouvelles  which  it 
regarded  as  its  headquarters.  The  full  legal  record  of 
the  authorisation  of  this  sale  still  exists ;  ^  but  an  absurd 
and  slanderous  legend,  after  Calvin  had  become  an 


^  For  the  whole  matter,  see  Bimbenet,  Memoires  de  la  SocieU  des 
Antiquaires  de  Picardie,  x.  398-474;  Lefranc,  Jeimesse,  105,  106, 
203,  204;    Doumergue,  i.  299-304. 

2Doinel,  Bulletin,  etc.,  for  1877,  p.  179;   Lefranc,  Jeunesse,  p.  203. 


1533]      Uncertainty  as  to  his  Work        65 

object  of  attack,  and  was  no  longer  living  so  that  a 
reply  was  impossible  from  him,  twisted  this  clear 
transaction  into  a  story  that  he  abused  his  position  at 
Orleans  to  steal  a  silver  chalice  belonging  to  the  Picard 
nation,  in  order  to  pay  the  personal  expenses  of  a  long 
journey/ 

While  other  positive  intimations  of  Calvin's  life 
during  the  last  half  of  1532  and  the  first  seven  months 
of  1533  are  lacking,  save  the  important  legal  records 
just  considered  which  show  his  presence  and  official 
position  in  the  University  of  Orleans,  a  letter  of  Calvin's 
has  been  preserved,  undated  as  to  the  year,  but  written, 
apparently  from  Noyon,  on  a  September  4th,  to  the 
eminent  German  reformer,  Martin  Bucer  (1491-1551) 
of  Strassburg,  commending  to  that  theologian's  favour 
a  French  refugee  who  "could  no  longer  bow  the  neck 
to  that  voluntary  bondage  which  even  yet  we  bear."^ 
This  epistle  was  assigned  to  the  year  1532  by  Conrad 
Hubert  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  this  traditional 
date,  which  was  followed  by  the  older  historians,  was 
retained,  though  with  much  hesitation,  by  the  Strass- 
burg editors  of  Calvin's  works.  It  has  a  recent  though 
cautious  defender  in  Professor  Doumergue.^  If  this 
view  is  correct,  we  have  not  merely  an  additional 
indication  as  to  Calvin's  whereabouts  during  the  period 
in  question;  but  what  is  vastly  more  important,  clear 
proofs  of  his  relations  to  the  great  Strassburg  reformer, 

^  Jacques  Desmay,  Remarques  .  .  .  stir  la  vie  .  .  .  de  Jean  Calvin, 
published  at  Rouen,  in  1621,  reprinted  in  Cimber  and  Danjou's 
Archives  curieuses  de  Vhistoire  de  Fra^ice,  v.  393;   Doumergue,  i.  303. 

2  Opera,  xb.  22-24. 

3 1.  297-299,  556. 
5 


66  John  Calvin  [1528- 

and  of  his  own  Evangelical  opinions,  as  early  as  Sep- 
tember, 1532.  But  weighty  reasons  serve  to  throw 
doubt  on  the  correctness  of  this  dating.  The  letter 
itself,  as  the  Strassburg  editors  pointed  out,'  impHes  a 
previous  intimacy,  of  which  there  is  no  proof  if  1532 
be  the  date;  and  its  tone  is  strikingly,  and  one  may 
say  from  the  point  of  view  of  that  age  shockingly, 
famiHar,  if  used  by  a  youthful  student  toward  a  scholar 
of  European  reputation.  Herminjard  would,  therefore, 
put  it  in  1534,  or  possibly  1533,''  and  Lefranc  accepts 
the  former  date ;  ^  but  whatever  may  be  urged  as  possible 
in  view  of  OKvetan's  relations  to  Bucer,  or  Calvin's 
later  indebtedness  to  Bucer's  theological  writings,  it 
seems  difficult  to  the  present  writer  to  avoid  the  con- 
clusion reached  by  Lang,  that  while  we  cannot  certainly 
fix  the  date  of  this  letter  as  1534,  it  must  unquestionably 
be  considerably  later  than  1532.4 

When  we  next  encounter  Calvin  after  his  presence 
in  the  meeting  of  the  Chapter  at  Noyon,  on  August 
23,  1533,  of  which  mention  has  already  been  made, 
he  is  settled  once  more  in  Paris,  and  is  writing  to  his 
friend,  Francois  Daniel,  at  Orleans,  under  date  of  the 
twenty- seventh  of  the  following  October.  Calvin  had 
come  to  Paris  at  an  interesting  juncture.  The  year 
was  one  of  hope  in  the  history  of  the  reformatory 
movement  in  France  as  none  previous  had  been  and 


^  Opera,  xb.  23. 

2  Herminjard,  iii.  204;    Doumergue,  i.  557. 

3  Jeunesse,  p.  46. 

^  Die  Bekehrung  Johannes  Calvms,  pp.  16,  17.  Miiller  {Calvins 
Bekehrung,  pp.  245-253)  inclines  to  put  it  in  1538,  or  possibly  from 
Nyon,  on  Lake  Geneva,  in  1537,  1542  or  1543-1547. 


1533]      Uncertainty  as  to  his  Work        67 

none  for  a  long  time  to  come  was  to  be.  And  of  the 
hope  Paris  was  the  centre.  Under  the  kindly  patronage 
of  Marguerite  d'Angouleme,  who  represented  her 
brother,  the  King,  in  his  long  absence  from  the  capital, 
the  humanistic  reformers  of  the  school  of  Lc  Fevre 
were  in  high  favour,  and  their  opponents  had  some 
reason  to  fear  that  this  goodwill  would  lead  to  the 
countenancing  of  teachers  of  a  much  more  radical 
policy.  Calvin's  letter^  shows  him  deeply  interested 
in  the  discussions  of  the  capital,  among  which  the  re- 
ligious questions  of  the  hour  had  large  place.  He  is 
evidently  on  cordial  terms  with  Gerard  Roussel,  the 
intimate  disciple  of  Le  Fevre,  who,  like  his  master,  was 
never  to  break  with  the  Roman  Church  outwardly,  but 
who  was  far  enough  removed  from  its  dominant  spirit. 
Roussel,  whom  Marguerite  d'Angouleme  had  long  ad- 
mired for  his  mystical  piety  and  humanistic  conceptions 
of  reform,  had  been  secured  by  that  Queen  and  her 
husband,  the  King  of  Navarre,  in  the  absence  from 
Paris  of  Francis  I.,  as  Lenten  preacher  for  1533.  His 
sermons  had  led  to  that  outbreak  of  hostility  on  the 
part  of  the  theologians  of  the  University  which  King 
Francis  had  checked  in  May  by  banishing  Beda  and 
his  associates,  the  representatives  of  an  unbending 
Roman  conservatism  which  the  King  was  willing  for 
the  time  being  to  oppose  in  the  interest  of  fashionable 
humanistic    learning.  ^^    Calvin    could    now    speak    of 


'  Opera,  xb.  25-30.  For  the  general  situation  see  Bourrilly  and 
Weiss,  Jeandu  Bellay,  les  Protestants  et  la  Sorbonne,  in  the  Biclletin, 
lii.  193-231  (1903). 

2  Herminjard,  iii.  54-61. 


68  John    Calvin  [1528- 

Roussel  as  "our  G.[erard],"  and  circulate  his  writings 
confidentially.'  It  must  have  been  with  keen  satis- 
faction that  Calvin  was  able,  in  this  letter,  to  refer  to 
his  friend  Nicolas  Cop  as  "now  rector"  of  the  Uni- 
versity, an  office  to  which  Cop  had  been  chosen  only 
seventeen  days  before;  and  Calvin  unquestionably 
shared  the  pleasure  of  his  humanistic  friends,  Roussel 
and  Cop,  when,  just  as  he  was  writing,  the  interference 
of  the  King  had  compelled  the  conservatives  of  the 
University  to  disavow  any  intention  to  condemn  Mar- 
guerite d'Angouleme's  Le  miroir  de  Vame  pecheresse.^ 
Five  days  after  this  letter.  Cop  pronounced  his  rec- 
torial address  in  the  Church  of  the  Mathurins,  using 
possibly,  though  hardly  probably,  the  words  of  Calvin; 
and  giving  utterance  to  sentiments  of  an  unmistakably 
Evangelical  character,  drawn  from  Protestant  sources. ^ 
With  his  friend  Calvin  undoubtedly  sympathised. 
It  is  evident  that  by  this  first  of  November,  1533, 
Calvin,  whether  in  his  own  estimate  a  Protestant  or 
merely  an  earnest  humanistic  reformer  of  the  school  of 
Le  Fevre,  had  come  to  religious  convictions  generally 
associated  with  Protestantism,  and  had  been  mastered 


^  Opera,  xb.  26;  Herminjard,  iii.  105. 

2  An  expression  in  Calvin's  letter  has  given  rise  to  much  per- 
plexity. He  said,  "  Visum  est  statui  pessimum  exemplum  eorum 
lihidini  qui  rebus  novis  inhiant,'"  etc.  {Opera  xb.  27.)  Those  "who 
gape  after  new  things"  are  regarded  by  Herminjard,  Lecoultre, 
Stahelin,  and  Doumergue  as  the  reformers.  If  so,  it  is  hard  to  ex- 
plain Calvin's  remark,  in  view  of  his  evident  sympathy  with  Roussel 
and  Cop.  Miiller  {Calvins  Bekehrung,  p.  198)  interprets  them  more 
truly  as  a  criticism  of  those  who  were  "making  trouble, " i. e.  of  the 
conservatives  by  whom  the  reformers  were  opposed. 

3  This  address  v/ill  be  considered  in  the  next  chapter. 


1533J      Uncertainty  as  to  his  Work        69 

by  an  interest  in  religion  of  which  there  is  no  evidence 
in  his  Commentary  on  Seneca  or  in  his  earher  corre- 
spondence. Whether  he  then  knew  it  or  not,  and 
probably  he  had  yet  little  conception  of  its  signifi- 
cance, Calvin  had  found  his  Hfe-work.  This  crisis 
properly  challenges  the  questions  of  Calvin's  religious 
development  and  of  the  nature  of  that  transforming 
experience  which  he  himself  styled  his  "conversion."  ' 


opera,  xxxi.  21. 


CHAPTER   IV 

RELIGIOUS   DEVELOPMENT   AND   CONVERSION 

IN  approaching  the  subject  of  the  religious  develop- 
ment and  conversion  of  Calvin  a  theme  of  much 
difficulty  is  encountered.  Not  that  the  final  result  is 
in  any  way  obscure.  No  religious  leader  of  the  Refor- 
mation age  stands  more  clearly  defined  than  he  in  all 
the  traits  of  the  spiritual  character  of  his  maturer  years. 
But  the  process  by  which  Calvin  passed  from  the  status 
of  a  student  supported  by  funds  drawn  from  Roman 
ecclesiastical  foundations,  and  reckoned  as  of  the 
Roman  clergy  even  if  in  no  clerical  orders,  to  that  of  a 
leader  of  Protestantism,  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  fol- 
low in  detail,  partly  by  reason  of  Calvin's  own  reticence 
in  regard  to  all  that  concerned  his  inward  experiences, 
partly  because  his  earliest  biographers  unintentionally, 
but  none  the  less  effectively,  distorted  the  facts  of  his 
early  religious  life,  and  partly,  also,  in  consequence  of 
the  varying  interpretations  which  modern  historians 
have  placed  on  such  scanty  indications  of  the  stages 
of  his  spiritual  development  as  have  survived.  Nor 
are  those  who  have  recently  treated  of  the  matter  at 
one  as  to  what  they  understand  by  his  "conversion." 
Is  that  to  be  regarded  as  implying  simply  his  attain- 
ment of  views  now  considered  distinctive  of  Protestant- 
ism; or  can  nothing  be  properly  given  that  name  that 
does  not  involve  a  deliberate  separation   from    the 

70 


[1528-1533]      Religious  Development  71 

Roman  communion?  The  answer  given  to  this 
question  makes  not  a  little  difference  in  the  dating 
assigned  to  this  crucial  episode  in  Calvin's  religious 
history. 

Calvin's  most  distinct  account  of  his  spiritual  devel- 
opment was  written  in  middle  life,  and  occurs  almost 
incidentally  in  the  Preface  to  his  noble  Commentary 
on  the  Psalms,  published  in  Latin  in  1557,  and  in 
French  the  year  following.  It  is  at  nearest  almost  a 
quarter  of  a  century  later  than  the  experiences  that  it 
pictures.  The  struggles  of  the  writers  of  the  Psalms, 
especially  of  David,  recall  to  him  his  own  combats,  and 
induce  him  to  compare  his  own  trials  with  those  of  the 
Jewish  poet-king : ' — 

It  is  true  that  my  estate  is  much  humbler  and  lower 
[than  David's],  and  there  is  no  need  that  I  should  stop  to 
demonstrate  the  fact;  but  as  he  was  taken  from  caring  for 
beasts  and  raised  to  the  sovereign  rank  of  royal  dignity,  so 
God  has  advanced  me  from  my  humble  and  lowly  begin- 
nings so  far  as  to  call  me  to  this  most  honourable  office  of 
minister  and  preacher  of  the  Gospel.  From  the  time  that 
I  was  a  young  child,  my  father  had  intended  me  for  Theol- 
ogy; but  afterwards,  because  he  perceived  that  the  science 
of  Laws  commonly  enriches  those  who  follow  it,  this  hope 
caused  him  promptly  to  change  his  plan.  That  was  the 
reason  why  I  was  withdrawn  from  the  study  of  Philosophy, 
and  why  I  was   set   to  learning  Law.      Though  I  forced 


'  Opera,  xxxi.  21-24.  The  Latin  and  French  versions  are  there 
given  in  parallel.  Both  are  thought  to  be  from  Calvin's  pen.  I 
quote  from  the  French. 


72 


John  Calvin  [1528- 


myself  to  engage  faithfully  in  it  in  order  to  obey  my  father, 
God  finally  made  me  turn  about  in  another  direction  by  his 
secret  providence. 

And,  in  the  first  place,  because  I  was  so  obstinately  ad- 
dicted to  the  superstitions  of  the  papacy  that  it  was  very 
hard  to  draw  me  from  that  deep  slough,  by  a  sudden  con- 
version He  subdued  and  reduced  my  heart  to  docility,  which, 
for  my  age,  was  over-much  hardened  in  such  matters.  Hav- 
ing consequently  received  some  taste  and  knowledge  of  true 
piety,  I  was  forthwith  inflamed  with  so  great  a  desire  to 
reap  benefit  from  it  that,  although  I  did  not  at  all  abandon 
other  studies,  I  yet  devoted  myself  to  them  more  indiffer- 
ently. Now  I  was  greatly  astonished  that,  before  a  year 
passed,  all  those  who  had  some  desire  for  pure  doctrine  be- 
took themselves  to  me  in  order  to  learn,  although  I  myself 
had  done  little  more  than  begin.  For  my  part,  I  commenced 
to  seek  some  hiding-place  and  means  of  withdrawing  from 
people,  since  I  have  always  loved  quiet  and  tranquillity, 
being  by  nature  somewhat  shy  and  timid;  but  so  far  was 
I  from  succeeding  in  my  wish  that,  on  the  contrary,  all 
retreats  and  places  of  retfi-ement  were  as  public  schools 
for  me.  In  short,  while  I  have  always  had  this  aim  of 
living  privately  without  being  known,  God  has  so  led  me 
and  guided  me  by  various  vicissitudes  that  He  has  never | 
let  me  rest  in  any  place  whatever,  but,  in  spite  of  my 
natural  disposition.  He  has  brought  me  forth  into  the  light, 
and,  as  the  saying  is,  has  thrust  me  onto  the  stage. ^  And, 
in  fact,  when  I  left  ^he  land  of  France  I  came  to  Germany 
of  set  purpose  to  the  end  that  there  I  might  live  in  some 
inconspicuous  nook  as  I  have  always  wished. 


^An  English  equivalent  is  lacking  for  Calvin's  expression  "et  fait 
venir  en  jeu,  comme  on  dit." 


1533]  Religious   Development  73 

Earlier  in  date  of  composition,  though  much  less 
definitely  of  a  biographic  character,  arc  certain  passages 
in  Calvin's  brilliant  Reply  to  Jacopo  Sadolclo,  of  1539. 
The  Roman  cardinal  had  pictured  a  Catholic  and  a 
Protestant  as  rendering  account  of  their  religious  prin- 
ciples and  motives  before  the  bar  of  God's  judgment, 
to  the  decided  disadvantage  of  the  reformer/  Calvin 
takes  up  the  same  figure  and  puts  into  the  mouths  of 
a  Protestant  minister  and  of  a  common  member  of  his 
flock  most  skilful  defences  of  Protestant  principles, 
written  with  consummate  literary  art  and  by  no  means 
to  be  considered  wholly  autobiographic,^  yet  of  such 
spiritual  earnestness  and  verisimilitude  that  they  are 
undoubtedly  to  a  considerable  extent  drawn  from  his 
own  religious  experience. 

Called  to  answer  before  God,  the  minister  may 
make  reply  r^ — 

They  charged  me  with  two  of  the  worst  of  crimes, — 
heresy  and  schism.  And  the  heresy  was  that  I  dared  to 
protest  against  dogmas  which  they  received.  But  what 
could  I  have  done  ?  I  heard  from  Thy  mouth  that  there 
was  no  other  light  of  truth  which  could  direct  our  souls 
into  the  way  of  life  than  that  which  was  kindled  by  Thy 
Word.  I  heard  that  whatever  human  minds  of  themselves 
conceive  concerning  Thy  Majesty,  the  worship  of  Thy  Deity, 
and  the  mysteries  of  Thy  religion,  was  vanity.  I  heard  that 
their  introducing  into  the  Church  instead  of  Thy  Word, 


^  Opera,  v.  379-381. 

2  Lang,  Bekehrung,  pp.  31-36;  but  comp.  Doumergue,  i.  347-350. 
'  Opera,  v.  408;  Henry  Beveridge's  translation,  Tracts,  Edinburgh, 
i860,  i.  50. 


74  John  Calvin  [1528- 

doctrines  sprung  from  the  human  brain,  was  sacrilegious 
presumption.  But  when  I  turned  my  eyes  towardsjnen,^ 
I  saw  very  different  principles  prevailing.  Those  who  were 
regarded  as  the  leaders  of  faith  neither  understood  Thy 
Word,  nor  greatly  cared  for  it.  .  .  .  They  had  fabricated 
for  themselves  many  useless  frivolities,  as  a  means  of  pro- 
curing Thy  favour,  and  on  these  they  so  plumed  themselves 
that,  in  comparison  with  them,  they  ahnost  condemned  the 
standard  of  true  righteousness  which  Thy  law  recommended 
— to  such  a  degree  had  human  desires  after  usurping  the 
ascendancy,  derogated,  if  not  from  the  belief,  at  least  from 
the  authority,  of  Thy  precepts  therein  contained.  That  I 
might  perceive  these  things,  Thou,  O  Lord,  didst  shine  upon 
me  with  the  brightness  of  Thy  Spirit;  that  I  might  com- 
prehend how  impious  and  noxious  they  were,  Thou  didst 
bear  before  me  the  torch  of  Thy  Word;  that  I  might  abom- 
inate them  as  they  deserv^ed.  Thou  didst  stimulate  my 
soul. 

The  solemn  justification  ascribed  to  the  layman  by 
Calvin  bears  fewer  marks  of  the  author's  personal  strug- 
gles. Some  of  its  touches,  especially  regarding  the 
Bible,  reflect  the  experience  of  the  ''common  man  of 
the  people"  rather  than  that  natural  to  an  inquisitive 
student  at  Paris  and  Orleans.  But  it  would  seem  to 
be  the  order-loving,  legally  trained,  precedent-seeking 
Calvin  that  speaks  for  himself  in  these  words  : ' — 

When,  however,  I  had  performed  all  these  things  [i.e.  had 
sought  forgiveness  for  sin  in  accordance  with  the  teachings 
of  the  Roman  Church],  though  I  had  some  intervals  of 


Opera,  v.  412;    Tracts,  i.  56. 


1533]  Religious  Development  75 

quiet,  I  was  still  far  off  from  true  peace  of  conscience ;  for, 
whenever  I  descended  into  myself,  or  raised  my  mind  to 
Thee,  extreme  terror  seized  me — terror  which  no  expiations 
nor  satisfactions  could  cure.  And  the  more  closely  I  ex- 
amined myself,  the  sharper  the  stings  with  which  my  con- 
science was  pricked,  so  that  the  only  solace  that  was  left 
to  me  was  to  delude  myself  by  obliviousness.  Still,  as 
nothing  better  offered,  I  continued  the  course  which  I  had 
begun,  when,  lo,  a  very  different  form  of  doctrine  started 
up,  not  one  which  led  us  away  from  the  Christian  profes- 
sion, but  one  which  brought  it  back  to  its  fountain-head,  and, 
as  it  were,  clearing  away  the  dross,  restored  it  to  its  original 
purity.  Offended  by  the  novelty,  I  lent  an  unwilling  ear, 
and  at  first,  I  confess,  strenuously  and  passionately  resisted; 
for  (such  is  the  firmness  or  effrontery  with  which  it  is  natural 
to  men  to  persist  in  the  course  which  they  have  once  under- 
taken) it  was  with  the  greatest  difficulty  that  I  was  induced 
to  confess  that  I  had  all  my  life  long  been  in  ignorance  and 
error.  One  thing,  in  particular,  made  me  averse  to  those 
new  teachers — viz.  reverence  for  the  Church.  But  when 
once  I  opened  my  ears,  and  allowed  myself  to  be  taught, 
I  perceived  that  this  fear  of  derogating  from  the  majesty  of 
the  Church  was  groundless.  For  they  reminded  me  how 
great  the  difference  is  between  schism  from  the  Church  and 
studying  to  correct  the  faults  by  which  the  Church  herself 
was  contaminated. 


A  hint  as  to  one  of  Calvin's  earliest  acquaintances 
with  Protestant  discussion,  and  as  to  a  difficulty  which 
operated  with  others  to  set  him  in  opposition  toward 
Protestant  claims,  appears  to  be  contained,  also,  in  the 
following  passage  from  his  Second  Reply  to  Westphal, 


76  John  Calvin  [1528- 

published  in  1556,  many  years  after  the  experience  to 
which  it  refers:^ — 

For  when  I  was  beginning  to  emerge  from  the  darkness  of 
the  papacy,  having  gained  a  sHght  taste  of  sound  doctrine, 
I  read  in  Luther  that  nothing  was  left  of  the  Sacraments  by 
(Ecolampadius  and  ZwingH  save  bare  and  empty  figures. 
I  confess  that  I  was  so  ahenated  from  their  books  that  I 
long  abstained  from  reading  them.  Afterwards,  before  I 
undertook  to  write,  they  moderated  something  of  their 
former  vehemence,  having  discussed  together  at  Marburg, 
so  that  the  thicker  fog  was  somewhat  scattered  even  if  it 
was  not  yet  fully  clear  weather. 

The  implication  would  seem  to  be  that  Calvin  had 
run  across  one  of  Luther's  discussions  of  the  Supper, 
before  the  Marburg  Colloquy, — that  is  before  October, 
1529. 

From  Calvin's  positive  statements  regarding  his  re- 
ligious experience  several  conclusions  may  with  confi- 
dence be  drawn.  It  is  evident  that  he  regarded  his  "  con- 
version'' as  the  sovereign  work  of  God.  Nothing  less, 
he  felt,  than  divine  power  could  have  wrought  the  change 
which  he  recognised  as  having  taken  place  in  him.  It 
had  been  brought  about  by  an  immediate  and  trans- 
forming intervention  of  God  himself.  Nothing  stood 
or  could  stand  between  his  soul  and  God.  Equally 
plain  is  it,  also,  that  this  transformation  in  the  funda- 
mental habit  of  his  mind  by  a  power  outside  himseK 
had  been,  in  his  apprehension,  "sudden."  It  had  been 
a  change  of  view  no  less  unlooked  for  than  supernatural 


Opera,  ix.  51. 


1533]  Religious    Development  77 

in  its  origin.  And  it  is  clear,  too,  that,  within  the 
year  following  this  experience,  Calvin  had  become 
a  leader  in  Evangelical,  or  at  least  humanistically  re- 
formatory, circles  in  the  community  in  which  he  was. 
This  publicity,  to  whatever  extent  it  may  have  reached, 
was  distasteful  to  him,  and  he  would  have  preferred  a 
life  of  literary  ease;  but  the  same  divine  power  that 
had  effected  the  initial  transformation  in  him>  now,  as 
it  seemed  to  him,  forced  him  into  conspicuity  and  in- 
creasing leadership.  If  to  these  positive  details  drawn 
from  his  Preface  to  the  Commentary  on  the  Psalms  the 
less  certainly  autobiographic  intimations  of  the  Reply  to 
Sadoleto  may  properly  be  added,  it  is  clear  that  this 
"sudden  conversion"  had  as  an  important  factor — 
probably  as  its  central  experience — the  recognition  of 
the  Scriptures,  and  of  the  Scriptures  alone,  as  the  very 
voice  of  God.  God  speaks,  and  he  can  but  listen. 
And  this  speaking  for  Calvin  is  through  the  Word, — 
not  through  the  Church,  or  even  primarily  within, 
though  it  will  be  found  that  in  his  developed  theology 
Calvin  gives  weight  to  the  inward  testimony  of  the 
Spirit.  This  strenuous  conviction  regarding  the  abso- 
lute and  exclusive  divine  authority  of  the  Scriptures, 
characteristic  of  the  Reformation  generally,  but  held 
by  Calvin  more  clearly,  perhaps,  than  by  any  other  of 
the  reformers,  is  the  logical  outcome  of  that  return  to 
the  sources  which  was  the  ground-note  of  the  Renais- 
sance. With  most  of  those  who  had  thus  far  sought  a 
betterment  of  religious  conditions  in  France  its  full  sig- 
nificance was  but  dimly  apprehended;  with  Calvin  it 
was  fundamental.      But   one   can  well   believe  that, 


^.^' 


78  John  Calvin  1^^528- 

before  his  order- loving  mind  could  feel  that  only  in  the 
Scriptures  is  final  divine  truth  to  be  found,  Calvin  had 
to  struggle  with  that  "reverence  for  the  Church"  and 
sense  of  the  sanctity  of  accepted  views  of  the  Sacra- 
ments which  were  part  of  his  race-inheritance.  His 
lawyer-grasp  must  have  a  document  on  which  to  base 
its  deductions.  The  authority  must  be  tangible  and 
objective,  and  this  he  found  in  the  Scriptures;  but  be- 
fore he  could  deny  to  the  Roman  Church  any  authori- 
tative interpreting  function,  or  reject  its  long  series  of 
precedents  and  decisions,  he  must  needs  pass  through 
a  struggle  the  outcome  of  which  seemed  to  him  the  in- 
tervention of  a  power  no  less  than  that  of  God,  It  is 
fair,  also,  to  infer  from  the  Reply  to  Sadoleto  that  a 
sense  of  sinfulness  and  of  the  inadequacy  of  the  common 
mediaeval  theories  of  the  way  of  salvation,  ending  in 
glad  acceptance  of  reHef  from  the  burden  through  the 
way  known  as  justification  by  faith  alone,  was  an  in- 
tegral part  of  the  experience  which  he  called  his  "  con- 
version." In»a  measure,,  at  least,  his  pathway  was 
similar  to  that  of  Luther;  though  a  comparison  to 
Augustine  would  perhaps  be  truer. 

But,  if  the  general  features  of  Calvin's  religious  de- 
velopment are  thus  made  at  least  presumptively  plain 
by  his  own  statements,  very  weighty  questions  yet  re- 
main unanswered.  When  and  where  did  this  great 
transformation  occur  ?  Who  were  the  human  instru- 
ments, if  any,  in  it?  Was  its  power  that  of  a  revolu- 
tion in  the  whole  spiritual  man  leading  to  immediate 
action;  or  was  it  a  sudden  energising  of  a  will  thus  far 
lacking  strength  to  put  into  vital  practice  convictions 


1533]  Religious  Development  79 

already  long  held  as  intellectual  verities  ?  To  these 
queries  most  various  answers  have  been  and  are  still 
given  by  competent  scholars. 

According  to  the  representations  of  Calvin's  friends 
and  oldest  biographers,  Beza  and  Colladon,'  Calvin's 
transition  to  Protestantism  began  with  the  influence  of 
his  relative,  Pierre  Robert  Oliv^tan;  and  was  already 
so  advanced  by  the  time  that  he  entered  on  the  study 
of  law  at  Orleans,  early  in  1528,  as  to  be  an  important 
factor  in  that  decision  to  substitute  jurisprudence  for 
theology.  Influenced  by  Olivetan,  the  youthful  Calvin 
began  the  study  of  the  Scriptures  and  withdrew  him- 
self, in  a  measure  at  least,  from  the  Roman  worship. 
According  to  their  representation,  this  must  have  hap- 
pened before  Calvin  was  nineteen  years  old.  Arrived 
at  Orleans,  Calvin  vigorously  continued  his  study  of 
the  Bible,  and  made  himself  a  leader  among  those  seek- 
ing religious  reform.  While  a  student  at  Bourges  he 
preached  at  Lignieres,  and  on  coming  to  Paris,  where 
he  wrote  his  Seneca,  he  became  acquainted  with  all 
the  reformers  there,  and  his  relations  with  Estienne  de 
la  Forge,  the  noble  EvangeHcal  merchant  who  was 
to  seal  his  faith  by  martyrdom  in  1535,  and  with 
Nicolas  Cop,  are  cited  as  examples  of  this  reformatory 
activity. 

A  modification  of  this  interpretation  of  the  beginnings 
of  Calvin's  Protestantism  was  presented  by  the  Catholic 
historian,  Florimond  de  Rsemond.^    Anxious  to  find  in 


^  Lives,  of  1564,  1565,  and  1575,  in  Opera,  xxi.  29,  54,  55,  121,  122. 
2  La  naissance,  progrez  et  decadence    de  Vheresie,  Paris,   1605,  p. 
882.     The  author  died  in  1601. 


8o  John  Calvin  [1528- 

Germany  rather  than  in  his  native  land  the  source  of 
Calvin's  "heresy,"  he  affirmed  that  its  initiation  was 
due  to  Melchior  Wolmar  at  Bourges.  Among  more 
modern  historians,  Henry  was  firmly  of  the  opinion 
that  Wolmar  was  the  prime  human  factor  in  Calvin's 
conversion/  It  is  easy,  moreover,  to  combine  the  re- 
port of  Beza  with  the  representation  given  by  Raymond, 
and  to  hold,  as  Merle  d'Aubigne  and  many  other  his- 
torians have  done,  that  OHvetan  began  and  Wolmar 
ably  continued  the  EvangeHcal  development  of  the 
reformer. 

Within  the  last  third  of  a  century,  and  especially 
during  the  last  twenty  years,  Calvin's  statements,  the 
affirmations  of  his  earliest  biographers,  and  such  hints 
as  can  be  derived  from  his  letters  and  the  Commentary 
on  Seneca  have  been  subjected  to  much  patient  scholarly 
analysis.  Yet  the  conclusions  reached  exhibit  great 
variety  of  critical  deduction. 

To  the  Old-Cathohc  German  historian,  F.  W.  Kamp- 
schulte,  writing  in  1869,  the  "traditional  view"  seemed 
"wholly  erroneous  that  Calvin  had  been  completely 
won  for  the  Reformation  during  his  university  years, 
and  had  even  stood  forth  with  great  success  as  its 
defender  and  furtherer."  ^  The  evidence  of  the 
letters  shows  the  contrary.  Kampschulte  reaches  the 
conclusion  •? — 

We  recognise  that  Calvin  long  found  himself  in  a  state 
of  uncertainty  and  vacillation  regarding  religious  questions. 

^  Leben  Johann  Calvins,  i.  38  (1835). 
2  Johatm  Calvin,  i.  233. 
^  Ibid.f  pp.  240,  241. 


1533]  Religious   Development  8r 

His  earlier  dependence  on  the  religion  of  his  fathers  had 
been  shattered  by  the  impressions  which  he  had  received 
during  his  university  days,  as  well  as  by  his  theological 
studies.  The  former  peace  was  gone;  the  forms  and  spir- 
itual remedies  of  the  Catholic  Church  no  more  gave  him 
full  satisfaction.  What  he  exi^erienced  in  his  family  was 
not  fitted  to  strengthen  him  in  the  faith  of  the  Church.  His 
father  died,  excommunicate.  His  older  brother,  Charles 
by  name,  although  a  clergyman,  fell  into  conflict  with  the 
spiritual  authorities  and  was  laid  under  ecclesiastical  cen- 
sure by  them.  One  of  his  nearest  relatives,  Robert  Olive- 
tan,  was  devoted  to  the  principles  of  religious  innovation, 
and  early  sought,  it  is  said,  to  win  him  for  them.  It  was 
hard  permanently  to  withstand  so  many  points  of  attack. 
.  .  .  There  were  already  in  the  capital  and  elsewhere  actual 
congregations  of  Evangelical  believers,  who  had  wholly 
broken  with  churchly  tradition  and  were  ready  to  pledge 
property  and  life  for  their  new  religious  convictions.  At 
Paris  Calvin  came  into  close  relations  with  some  of  them, 
notably  with  a  respected  and  well-to-do  merchant,  de  la 
Forge,  whom  he  extolled  in  his  later  writings.  Should  he 
have  less  courage  than  these  men,  and  persist  in  his  deter- 
mination to  lead  a  quiet  life  ?  Without  acting  against  his 
conscience  he  could  not.  ...  It  is  difficult  to  determine  the 
date  of  this  decisive  change.  Yet  we  shall  not  think  our- 
selves in  error  if  we  place  it  in  the  second  half  of  the  year  1532. 

Twelve  years  after  Kampschulte  published  his  volume, 
a  Dutch  scholar,  Allard  Pierson,  put  forth  the  most 
radical  criticism  of  the  accepted  view  of  Calvin's  con- 
version yet  offered, — a  criticism  that  has  secured  com- 
paratively few  followers.^     Not  only  does  he  deny  to 


Shcdien  over  Johannes  Kalvijn,  Amsterdam,  1881,  pp.  58-109. 
6 


82  John  Calvin  [1528- 

Calvin  the  authorship  of  Cop's  inaugural  discourse  of 
November  i,  1533,  but  he  finds  no  certain  proof  of 
Calvin's  Protestantism  before  August  23,  1535, — the 
date  of  the  Preface  to  the  Institutes. 

In  1888,  Abel  Lefranc,  now  Professor  in  the  College 
de  France  at  Paris,  presented  in  his  remarkable  study 
of  Calvin's  youth  an  interesting  modification  of  the  tra- 
ditional view,  and  supported  it  with  great  learning. 
His  investigations  marked  a  decided  advance  in  the 
loiowledge  of  Calvin's  family  and  early  environment. 
Calvin's  transition  to  Protestantism,  he  concluded,  was 
a  very  gradual  process,  however  sudden  in  its  decision 
at  the  end,  for  which  the  way  was  prepared  by  his  na- 
tive surroundings  and  family  experiences.^  His  father's 
excommunication  and  his  elder  brother's  breach  with 
the  Noyon  clergy  aroused  in  Calvin  the  spirit  of  pro- 
test which  was  natural  to  the  Picard  character,  and  had 
its  illustration  in  Le  Fevre,  Roussel,  and  others  from 
the  same  territory.  To  these  influences  were  added 
the  positive  EvangeHcal  exhortations  of  OHvetan  from 
1528,  onward;  and  that  young  reformer,  who  had  had 
to  seek  protection  in  Strassburg  by  May  of  the  year 
just  mentioned,  was  the  cause,  Lefranc  held,  of  a  gradu- 
al and  mysterious  propagation  of  reformed  ideas  at 
Noyon,  which  soon  won  such  following  that  the  Chapter 
did  not  dare  too  vigorously  to  oppose  it.  But  while 
the  way  was  made  ready  for  Calvin's  Protestantism  by 
the  influences  that  came  from  his  native  city,  as  well 
as  by  the  experiences  of  the  University,  it  was  long  be- 
fore he  became  fully  an  adherent  of  the  new  faith,  or 

^Jeumsse,  pp.  21,  24,  31,  37,  39,  41,  97-99,  112,  etc. 


1533]  Religious  Development  83 

could  engage  in  a  "great  stroke"  in  its  Ix-half  such  as 
Cop's  Address,  Calvin's  authorship  of  which  Lefranc 
fully  accepts: — 

The  ^  truth  is  that,  long  before  inclined  by  his  own  nature, 
prepared  by  his  education,  the  situation  of  his  family,  his 
relations,  his  studies,  he  did  not  declare  himself  o[)enly  a 
Huguenot  until  the  time  when  all  these  circumstances 
unitedly  forced  him  to  do  so  ahnost  against  his  will,  and 
when,  so  to  say,  he  could  no  longer  do  otherwise. 

Calvin's  decisive  conversion  was  above  all  a  question  of 
logic  and  reflection,  in  which  sentiment  had  no  part.  .  .  . 
In  all  probability,  and  as  far  as  it  is  possible  to  determine 
so  intimate  a  growth  of  ideas,  this  change  must  have  taken 
place  in  the  second  half  of  the  year  1532. 

Two  years  after  Lefranc,  in  1890,  Henri  Lecoultre, 
a  young  Swiss  scholar,  now  no  longer  living,  took  up 
the  problem  once  more.^  In  criticism  of  Lefranc  he 
rejected  the  thought  of  any  direct  influence  tending 
toward  Protestantism  upon  Calvin  derived  from  the 
family  or  early  environment  at  Noyon.  Gerard  Cau- 
vin's  troubles  were  pecuniary,  not  religious;  Charles 
Cauvin's  "heresies"  did  not  appear  tiU  1534;  nor  is 
the  existence  of  a  Protestant  movement  in  Noyon  de- 
monstrable before  that  year,  by  which  time  Calvin  was 
a  decided  adherent  of  Evangelical  views.  Possibly 
Gerard  Cauvin's  insistence  that  his  son  should  study 
law  may  have  been,  in  its  consequences,  a  step  of  high 
importance  toward  ideas  of  reform;   but  it  was  in  no 


^  Jeunesse,  pp.  41,  97,  98. 

2  Revile  de  theologie  et  de  philosophic,  Lausanne,  1890,  pp.  5-30. 


84  John  Calvin  [1528- 

way  so  intended  by  the  father.  But  Lecoultre  agrees 
with  Lefranc  in  admitting  the  influence  of  OHvetan 
and  the  Calvinistic  authorship  of  Cop's  Address.  With 
Lefranc  he  holds  that  Calvin  was  long  intellectually 
convinced  of  the  truth  of  Protestant  doctrine  before 
being  willing  to  break  with  the  Roman  Church;  but 
he  differs  from  the  scholar  just  named  in  refusing  to 
see  conclusive  evidence  of  that  conversion  in  any  act 
earlier  than  Calvin's  formal  breach  with  the  ancient 
communion  by  his  resignation  of  his  benefices  in  May, 

What  was  the  day  of  that  sudden  conversion?  What 
was  its  immediate  occasion?  We  do  not  know;  perhaps  we 
may  never  know.  But  its  meaning  need  not  be  doubtful; 
it  is  neither  a  conversion  of  intellect,  nor  a  conversion  of 
feeling,  but  a  conversion  of  will.  It  did  not  give  him  con- 
viction regarding  Protestant  dogmas, — that  he  possessed 
already;  it  did  not  inspire  in  him  a  warm  interest  for  the 
things  of  the  kingdom  of  God, — he  was  already  filled  with 
it ;  it  made  vital  an  arrested  resolution  to  conform  his  con- 
duct scrupulously  to  his  convictions,  and  to  break  all  con- 
nection with  the  errors  which  he  had  already  abjured  in 
the  depths  of  his  heart.  The  first  external  evidence  of  this 
conversion,  the  first  at  least  known  to  us,  is  a  sacrifice  of 
which  Calvin  never  boasted,  and  of  which  Theodore  Beza 
seems  to  have  had  no  knowledge.  The  archives  of  Noyon 
prove  that  on  May  4,  1534,  Calvin  resigned,  in  his  native 
city,  all  his  ecclesiastical  benefices.  This  act,  the  natural 
consequence  of  which  was  voluntary  exile,  was  needed  to 
make  of  Calvin  a  real  Protestant,  for  genuine  Protestantism 


Revue  de  theologie  et  de  philosophic,  Lausanne,  1890,  pp.  27,  28. 


1533]  Religious   Development  85 

does  not  consist  only  of  the  doctrines  of  justification  by- 
faith  and  of  the  sujjreme  authority  of  the  Scriptures.  It 
impHes,  as  its  name  imhcates,  an  energetic  protest,  formu- 
lated in  the  name  of  these  doctrines,  against  ecclestiastical 
abuses  of  every  kind. 

The  careful  sketch  of  Calvin's  life  by  the  late  Rudolf 
Stahehn,  printed  in  1897,'  without  entering  as  deeply 
into  the  question  as  the  discussions  just  cited,  expresses 
disbehef  in  his  authorship  of  Cop's  Address,  and  con- 
cludes, in  view  of  Calvin's  letter  written  on  October  27, 
1533,  of  which  some  account  has  been  given, ^  that  the 
future  reformer  "cannot  have  come  to  the  break  with 
the  Catholic  Church  .  .  .  before  the  first  months  of  the 
year  1534." 

But  during  the  same  year  that  Stahelin's  biographi- 
cal article  appeared,  a  no  less  able  German-speaking 
scholar,  August  Lang  of  Halle,  published  one  of  the 
most  thorough  investigations  of  the  circumstances  of 
Calvin's  conversion  yet  attempted.^  In  Lang's  opinion, 
as  in  that  of  Lecoultre,  influences  from  Noyon  can  have 
had  little  direct  connection  with  Calvin's  conversion. 
And,  furthermore,  the  allegations  of  Beza  and  Colladon, 
made  much  of  by  Lefranc  and  accepted  by  Lecoultre, 
regarding  the  instrumentality  of  Olivetan,  Lang  re- 
gards as  resting  ''on  very  unsafe  ground."  Wolmar's 
share  in  Calvin's  religious  transformation  is  quite  as 
unsupported.     Calvin  thanked  him  for  initiation  into 


^  Hauck's  Realencyklopddie  fur  protestantische   Theologie,  iii.  654- 
683. 

2  Ante,  p.  67. 

3  Die  Bekehrung  Johannes  Calvins,  Leipzig,  1897. 


86  John  Calvin  [1528- 

the  knowledge  of  Greek, — he  said  nothing  regarding 
any  indebtedness  to  his  old  teacher  for  religious  in- 
struction. In  fact,  as  a  student  Calvin  exhibited  no 
special  interest  in  religion.  His  letters  and  the  Com- 
mentary  on  Seneca  show  that  ''the  Bible  is  still  a  closed 
book  for  Calvin  because  his  heart  does  not  beat  for  it. 
We  must,  therefore,  lay  aside  all  attempted  expla- 
nations which  would  place  the  beginnings  of  the  con- 
version of  the  great  Biblical  theologian  in  his  student 
years  as  thoroughly  astray.  Before  the  year  1532,  and 
we  may  go  yet  further,  to  perhaps  the  middle  of  1533, 
the  religious  question  is  as  good  as  non-existent  for 
him."  But  a  "change  first  appeared  in  the  second  half 
of  the  year  1533";  and  it  had  its  most  conspicuous 
early  manifestation  in  Cop's  Address,  Calvin's  author- 
ship of  which  Lang  strongly  defends.  That  transfor- 
mation is  best  explained  as  occasioned  by  the  activity 
of  the  reform  party  in  Paris  in  1533,  and  especially 
by  the  acquaintance  of  Calvin  with  Gerard  Roussel, 
who,  though  never  breaking  with  the  Roman  Church, 
was  preaching  doctrines  to  all  intents  Protestant.  It 
is  inconceivable  also,  Lang  thinks,  that  a  man  of  iron 
will  and  strenuous  conscientiousness,  as  Calvin  always 
was,  could  have  remained  for  years  intellectually  con- 
vinced of  the  truths  of  Protestantism  and  yet  not  subject 
his  action  to  his  conviction,  as  Lefranc  and  Lecoultrc 
would  have  it.  His  was  no  mere  conversion  of  the  will. 
Calvin's  own  statements  that  he  ''was  obstinately  ad- 
dicted to  the  superstitions  of  the  papacy,"  and  that  his 
"heart  was  over-much  hardened,"^   show  that  both 


^  See  ante,  p.  49. 


1533]  Religious  Development  87 

intellect  and  will  were  active  in  the  transformation. 
"As  soon  as  his  understanding  was  convinced,  the 
newly-won  knowledge  must  almost  of  itself  arouse  the 
will  to  eager  activity."  To  Calvin,  his  conversion  ap- 
peared the  direct  work  of  God,  the  results  of  which 
were  "the  certainty  that  God  speaks  in  the  Scriptures, 
and  the  recognition  that  all  truth  is  contained  in  them; 
and  that  therefore  their  study  and  their  dissemination 
are  the  worthiest  object  of  the  talents  and  zeal  of  a 
man's  whole  life."  This  conviction  made  of  the  hu- 
manist a  Bible  theologian. 

The  problem  has  not,  however,  rested  with  the  so- 
lution that  Lang  has  offered;  for  the  traditional  view, 
in  a  somewhat  modified  form  it  is  true,  has  found  a 
defender  of  great  learning  and  force  in  Emile  Dou- 
mergue.  Professor  of  the  Theological  Faculty  at  Mon- 
tauban  in  France,  the  first  volume  of  whose  monu- 
mental biography  of  Calvin  appeared  in  1899.^  To 
Doumergue  the  statements  of  Beza  and  CoUadon  as  to 
Calvin's  Evangelical  beginnings  carry  great  weight. 
Olivetan  initiates  him  into  Evangelical  principles  as 
early  as  1528.  This  was  Calvin's  "sudden  conver- 
sion." It  was,  indeed,  but  a  beginning;  but  it  led 
Calvin  to  the  study  of  religious  questions,  and  to  read, 
for  instance,  the  Lutheran  exposition  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  earlier  than  the  Colloquy  at  Marburg  (1529). 
At  Orleans  and  even  more  at  Bourges,  Calvin  came 
into  contact  with  Wolmar,  and,  though  Calvin  speaks 
only  of  Greek  as  the  subject  of  their  study,  it  is  prob- 
able that  they  read  the   Greek  Testament  together, 


'See  i.  116,  117,  181-183,  337-352. 


88  John   Calvin  [1528- 

and  inconceivable  that  they  could  do  so  without  re- 
ligious instruction  being  given  by  the  teacher  to  the 
pupil.  Wolmar's  influence  Doumergue  view^s  as  "de- 
cisive." It  confirmed  and  greatly  extended  the  work 
begun  by  Olivetan.  And  Doumergue  furthermore 
holds  that  Calvin's  statement,  "Before  a  year  passed 
all  those  who  had  some  desire  for  pure  doctrine  betook 
themselves  to  me  in  order  to  learn,"  ^  refers  to  his  stu- 
dent days  at  Orleans  and  to  his  friends  there  like  Daniel 
and  Duchemin,  at  whose  instance  it  may  be  beheved 
he  preached,  not  as  a  Protestant,  but  as  a  reformatory 
Catholic,  at  Lignieres.  Evidence  of  Calvin's  interest 
in  religion  Doumergue  sees  in  his  citation  of  the  Scrip- 
tures and  of  the  Fathers  in  the  Commentary  on  Seneca 
as  well  as  in  his  purchase  of  a  Bible  for  Daniel;  and 
he  thinks  there  would  have  been  a  good  many  more 
such  tokens  had  not  Calvin's  correspondence  been 
searched  after  the  Address  of  Cop.  But  Calvin's  re- 
Hgious  development  appears  to  Doumergue  gradual, 
taking  him  through  the  stage  of  the  partial  Protestant- 
ism of  a  Le  Fevre;  and  it  was  not  till  the  views  were 
reached  that  are  shown  in  Cop's  Address,  in  Calvin's 
authorship  of  which  Doumergue  is  fully  confident, 
that  his  conversion,  suddenly  begun  years  before,  was 
evidently  completed.  The  termination  of  the  gradual 
process  of  Calvin's  conversion  by  his  arrival  at  the 
full  Protestant  position  Doumergue  would  place 
apparently  in  the  months  immediately  following  the 
publication  of  his  Commentary  on  Seneca, — that  is,  in 
1532. 

''■Ante,  p.  72. 


15,33]  Religious  Development  89 

Calvin's  conversion  still  proves  a  theme  rewarding 
study,  and  in  1905,  an  elaborate  monograph  appeared 
from  the  ])en  of  Professor  Karl  Miiller  '  of  Tubingen, 
not  only  discussing  the  whole  subject  anew,  and  with 
much  dissent  from  Doumergue,  but  subjecting  the 
claim  that  Calvin  wrote  Cop's  Address  to  a  painstaking 
examination  leading  to  its  denial.  Miiller  holds  it  as 
probable  that  Olivetan  influenced  Calvin  in  the  direc- 
tion that  Le  Fevre  represented  as  early  as  Calvin's 
undergraduate  days,  and  brought  him  into  connec- 
tion with  EvangeHcal  circles  at  Orleans.  Wolmar,  in 
Miiller's  opinion,  may  later  have  been  the  agent  through 
whom  Calvin  was  led  during  his  second  or  third  stay 
in  Paris  into  association  with  similar  reformers  there. 
But  his  "sudden  conversion,"  Miiller  beheves,  may 
have  taken  place  in  connection  with  the  Roman  ser- 
vices held  on  account  of  the  pest  in  which  he  shared 
in  Noyon  on  August  23,  1533,  when  he  may  have  seen 
the  inconsistency  of  his  principles  with  participation 
in  Roman  worship.  The  chief  element  in  that  con- 
version he  regards  as  a  submission  of  Calvin's  will  to 
that  of  God. 

Yet  the  discussion  has  not  rested  here,  for  in  the  early 
part  of  1906  Professor  Paul  Wernle  of  Basel  has  taken 
it  up,^  examining  principally  the  sources  of  Beza  and 
Colladon's  Lives  oj  Calvin.  He  concludes  that  their 
assertions    regarding    Calvin's    rehgious    development 


1  Calvin s  Bekehrung,  in  Nachrichten  von    der  konigl.  Gesellschajt 
der  Wissenschaften  zu  Gdttingen,  pp.  188-255. 

2  Noch  einrnal  die  Bekehrung  Calvins,  in  the  Zeitschrift  jUr  Kirchen- 
geschichte,  xxvii.  84-99. 


90  John  Calvin  [1528- 

are  simply  their  interpretations  of  the  scanty  allu- 
sions in  Calvin's  own  writings,  and  that  almost 
nothing  of  original  value  on  this  question  is  to  be  de- 
rived from  them.  In  his  opinion  we  have  no  direct 
knowledge  of  Calvin's  religious  history  during  his 
studies  in  law  at  Orleans  or  Bourges,  nor  can  any  con- 
nection of  Wolmar  or  OHv^tan  with  that  development 
be  proved  from  the  sources  at  our  disposal.^  Wernle 
inclines  to  Muller's  association  of  Calvin's  "conver- 
sion" with  the  inward  questionings  aroused  by  par- 
ticipation in  the  Roman  service  of  August,  1533,  at 
Noyon. 

It  must  be  clear  that  a  main  cause  of  the  wide  di- 
vergency of  these  conclusions  regarding  the  time  and 
nature  of  Calvin's  conversion  is  to  be  found  in  the 
scantiness  of  the  evidence.  Calvin's  own  reticence,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  remoteness  of  the  time  at  which  he 
wrote  from  the  events  to  which  he  cursorily  alludes,  the 
even  greater  removal  in  point  of  time  of  his  earliest 
biographers,  and  the  fragmentary  remains  of  his  corre- 
spondence, leave  much  room  to  conjecture  and  give  but 
an  imperfect  foundation  for  the  erection  of  a  structure 
of  solidly  buttressed  historical  facts.  To  the  present 
writer  none  of  the  careful  interpretations  just  cited  is 
wholly  satisfactory;  but  he  can  offer  his  own  attempted 
reconstruction  only  with  the  consciousness  that  it  is 
equally  tentative  and  falhble. 


3  Wernle  would  trace  Beza's  statement  regarding  Olivetan's  in- 
fluence simply  to  Calvin's  allusion  to  his  acquaintance  with  that 
reformer  as  " z'e/w^  nostra  fatniliaritas"  in  his  Preface  to  Olivetan's 
translation  of  the  Bible  (Opera,  ix.  790). 


1533]  Religious  Development  91 

It  would  seem  that  Calvin's  family  experiences  must 
have  done  not  a  little  to  loosen  the  hold  of  the  Church 
upon  him,  even  if  it  be  thought  tliat  Lefranc  has  claimed 
too  much.  To  have  a  father  and  a  brother  fall  into 
open  conflict  with  the  ecclesiastical  authorities,  even 
though  the  causes  were  only  financial  and  disciplinary, 
must  certainly  have  disposed  a  boy  just  passing  into 
manhood  toward  an  attitude  of  criticism.  This  need 
not  have  gone  far;  but  it  must  have  left  the  mind  in 
some  degree  open  to  discussion  of  the  claims  of  the 
establishment  with  which  his  relatives  were  in  con- 
troversy, even  though  that  controversy  was  with  a  local 
Chapter  and  in  no  sense  with  the  Church  as  a  whole. 
Furthermore,  the  statement  of  Beza  and  Colladon  that 
Calvin's  initiation  into  Reformed  sentiments  was 
effected  by  Olivetan  is  so  definite  that  it  must  reflect 
the  impression  prevalent  among  Calvin's  friends  during 
his  later  life,  and  have  some  probable  basis  in  fact. 
Mistake  here  is  far  less  likely  than  regarding  the  date 
and  extent  of  Calvin's  early  religious  activity.  The 
long  acquaintance  of  Calvin  with  OHvetan  is  witnessed 
by  Calvin's  own  description,  in  1535,  of  their  friendship 
as  vetus  nostra  jamiliaritas}  It  is  difficult  to  find  a 
place  for  this  influence  later  than  1528,  except  on  the 
improbable  supposition  that  it  was  by  letters  of  which 
we  have  now  no  hint,  written  after  Olivetan  had  fled 
from  Orleans  to  Strassburg  in  the  spring  of  that  year. 


^  Preface  to  Olivetan's  French  Bible,  Opera,  ix.  790.  This  seems 
to  the  writer  a  sufficient  justification  for  Beza's  conclusion  even  if  it 
is,  as  Wernle  believes,  only  Beza's  conjecture  from  the  phrase  itself. 


92  John  Calvin  [1528- 

Supposing  Olivetan's  influence  to  fall  in  Calvin's  early 
days  at  the  University  of  Orleans,  it  came  at  a  time 
when  the  young  scholar  was  not  merely  escaping  from 
the  severities  and  mediae valism  of  the  College  de  Mont- 
aigu  into  greater  Hberty  of  advanced  student  hfe,  and 
the  more  humanistic  atmosphere  of  Orleans,  but  at  a 
season  when  Gerard  Cauvin's  difficulties  with  the  Chap- 
ter at  Noyon  had  developed  and  that  ambitious  father 
had  determined  that  his  son  should  exchange  the- 
ology for  law.  The  statement  of  Beza  that  Calvin 
turned  to  the  study  of  law  partly  because  of  opposition 
to  the  old  Church,  receives,  however,  no  confirmation 
from  Calvin's  own  writings,  which  represent  it  as  a 
step  taken  merely  in  deference  to  his  father's  wishes. 
Yet  Olivetan,  or  some  other  impelHng  cause,  seems  to 
have  led  Calvin,  if  one  can  judge  from  his  declaration 
to  Westphal,^  to  look  into  one  of  Luther's  fiery  dis- 
cussions of  the  Lord's  Supper  at  this  time;  though 
with  the  result  that  he  was  more  antagonised  by  such 
Protestant  polemics  than  attracted.  He  began  to  know 
something  now  of  the  questions  at  issue;  but  to  hold 
as  Doumergue  does,  that  this  initiation,  slight  even  in 
that  historian's  opinion,  deserves  the  name  of  a  ''sudden 
conversion"  seems  an  error. 

At  Orleans  and  at  Bourges  Calvin  undoubtedly 
fo\md  himself  in  an  atmosphere  favourable  to  the 
humanistic  ideas  of  churchly  reform.  Sympathy  with 
the  thought  of  a  betterment  of  the  Church  by  education, 
preaching,  purer  morals,  and,  above  all,  by  a  return 
from  mediaevalism  to  the  sources  of  Christian  truth, 
such  as  Erasmus  had  urged,  was  widespread  in  France, 


^  Ante,  p.  76. 


1533]  Religious   Development  93 

and  nowhere  more  so  than  in  the  universities.  It 
involved  no  intention  to  break  with  the  historic  Roman 
Church.  The  Cops  at  Paris,  Daniel  and  Duchemin  at 
Orleans,  to  speak  only  of  Calvin's  friends,  were  of  this 
way  of  thinking.  Le  Fevre,  Brifonnet,  Roussel,  and 
Marguerite  d'Angouleme  had  even  made  it  fashionable. 
Calvin  must  have  felt  its  influence  about  him,  and  un- 
doubtedly sympathised  with  it.  It  is  quite  possible 
that  Wolmar  may  have  contributed  to  the  development 
of  these  reformatory  sympathies;  but  proof  is  wanting 
of  any  further  service  on  his  part  to  Calvin  than  in- 
struction in  Greek.  Earnest  and  serious-minded  al- 
ways, and  the  holder  of  an  ecclesiastical  benefice,  it  is 
not  impossible  that  some  basis  of  truth  may  underlie 
the  report  of  Beza  and  Colladon  that  he  preached  on 
occasion  at  Lignieres,  though,  if  so,  it  could  not  have 
been,  as  even  Doumergue  has  pointed  out,  as  a  Protes- 
tant.^ 

But  to  regard  Calvin  as  a  centre  of  Evangelical 
religious  activity  during  his  stay  at  Orleans  and  Bourges> 
as  Beza  does,  and  as  the  spiritual  guide  of  Daniel  and 
Duchemin  as  Doumergue  interprets  Beza's  statement, 
seems  unwarranted  for  several  reasons.  Calvin  him- 
self says  that  his  activity  as  a  religious  instructor*  was 
after  his  ''sudden  conversion,"^ — an  event  which,  it 
will  be  seen,  took  place  not  about  1528,  but  subse- 
quently to  his  first  period  of  study  at  Orleans  with 
which  we  have  now  to  do.  Moreover  Beza  apparently 
drew  from  Calvin's  own  statement  just  referred  to  his 


I.  igi,  192. 
Ante,  p.  72. 


94  John   Calvin  [1528- 

knowledge  of  the  activity  which  he  mistakenly  ascribed 
to  this  period.^  And,  chief  reason  of  all,  the  remains 
of  Calvin's  correspondence  show  him  in  no  such  light. 
It  is  not  a  sufficient  answer  to  say  with  Doumergue^ 
that  the  search  and  seizure  of  Calvin's  letters  which 
Beza  and  Colladon  report  as  having  taken  place,  to 
the  peril  of  his  friends,  after  Cop's  Address,  proves  the 
existence  of  letters  of  a  different  sort  and  that  what 
remain  are  the  ''non-Evangelical,"  and  therefore 
harmless  residuum.  To  say  little  of  the  fact  that  the 
existence  of  letters  showing  Evangelical  activity  late 
in  1533  would  prove  nothing  as  to  such  activity  in  1528- 
31,  Calvin's  letters  sent  to  his  friends  were  not  seized 
with  his  papers,  since  they  were  not  in  his,  but  in  the 
friends'  possession.  It  is  well-nigh  a  moral  impossi- 
bility that  side  by  side  with  the  cordial  student-like, 
but  religiously  colourless  letters  which  have  survived  of 
Calvin's  earliest  correspondence,  there  could  have  been 
another  series  in  which  the  writer  took  the  totally 
different  role  of  religious  adviser.  Nor  is  Calvin's 
interest    in    religious     questions    any    more    actively 


^  Compare  Calvin  with  Beza,  Opera,  xxxi.  22  with  xxi.  122. 

CALVIN.  BEZA. 

Itaque     aHquo    verae    pietatis  Interea    tamen    ille    sacrarum 

gustu   imbutus   tanto   proficiendi  literarum     studium     simul     dili- 

studio  exarsi,   ut  reliqua   studia,  genter   excolere,    in    quo   tantum 

quamvis  non  abjicerem,  frigidius  etiam  promoverat    ut    quicunque 

tamen  sectarer.     Necdum  elapsus  in    ea    urbe    aliquo    purioris    re- 

erat  annus  quum  omnis  purioris  Hgionis  cognoscendae  studio  tan- 

doctrinae  cupidi  ad  me  novitium  gebantur  ad  eum  etiam  percontan- 

adhuc  et  tironem  discendi  causa  dum  ventitarent. 
ventitabant. 

'I- 354,  355- 


1533]  Religious   Development  95 

evident  in  his  Commentary  on  Seneca.  True  he 
quotes  the  Bible  three  times — and  three  times  only — 
but  the  passages  thus  relatively  few  in  proportion  to  the 
mass  of  his  citation  are  of  no  significance  as  bearing 
on  the  burning  religious  problems  of  the  times. ^  In 
fact  Lang's  contention  seems  sustained  that  certainly 
till  after  the  publication  of  the  Commentary  just  cited, 
in  April,  1532,  Calvin's  interest  in  religious  questions 
was  inconsiderable  compared  with  his  zeal  for  human- 
istic scholarship. 

But  between  that  publication  and  Cop's  Address  of 
November  i,  1533,  a  great  change  had  taken  place  in 
Calvin,  and  the  query  naturally  arises  whether  it  is 
not  this  change  that  he  describes  as  his  "sudden  con- 
version." His  account  of  that  experience  shows  that 
he  regarded  it  as  a  crisis  of  the  utmost  significance, 
wrought  by  nothing  less  than  divine  power.  Can  that 
''conversion"  have  been  only  the  beginning  of  a  long 
period  of  gradual  development,  as  Doumergue  would 
have  it, — an  experience  to  be  dated  in  1528?  It  is 
Doumergue's  opinion  that  Calvin  states  distinctly,  in 
the  passage  already  often  cited, ^  that  his  conversion 
occurred  while  engaged  in  the  study  of  law  under  his 
father's  command.  The  phrase  used  does  not  seem 
to  the  present  writer  to  demand  that  interpretation. 
He  says  that  God  "finally"  (finalejiient,  tandem)  turned 


^  He  cites  Prov.  xvi.  14,  as  illustrative  of  royal  anger;  Romans, 
chapter  xiii.,  as  proving  that  "the  powers  that  be  are  ordained  of 
God,"  and  I.  Peter  ii.  18,  as  enjoining  duties  on  masters  toward  their 
servants. 

^  Ante,  p.  72;  Doumergue,  i.  344. 


g6  John  Calvin  [1528- 

him.  It  is  as  if  Calvin  anticipated  the  reader's  question 
why,  if  he  studied  law,  he  was  not  a  lawyer.  God  "at 
length"  interfered;  but  he  speaks  as  if  much  had  hap- 
pened before  that  interference  occurred.  Be  this  as 
it  may,  the  conclusion  is  much  more  certain  that  is  to 
be  drawn  from  Calvin's  statement,  in  the  same  passage, 
that,  ''before  a  year  passed,  all  those  who  had  some 
desire  for  pure  doctrine  betook  themselves  to  me  in 
order  to  learn,  although  I  myself  had  done  litde  more 
than  begin.  For  my  part,  I  commenced  to  seek  some 
hiding-place  and  means  of  withdrawing  from  people." 
Calvin  here  speaks  not  as  a  student  attendant  on 
classes,  but  as  one  able  to  find  a  home  for  himself 
where  he  wall.  His  search  for  a  quiet  resting-place 
fits  in  much  more  naturally  with  the  months  of  wan- 
dering after  Cop's  Address  than  with  student  life  at 
Orleans  or  Bourges.  Furthermore,  the  relative  indif- 
ference which  Calvin  declares  he  felt  after  his  conver- 
sion to  studies  other  than  religious,  is  hard  to  conceive 
as  previous  to  the  publication  of  the  Commentary  on 
Seneca,  which  reveals  on  every  page  unwearied  zeal  in 
the  mastery  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  classics.  A  just 
conclusion  seems  to  be  that  Calvin's  conversion  must 
have  occurred  between  the  completion  of  that  Com- 
mentary and  the  delivery  of  Cop's  Address,  and  prob- 
ably toward  a  year  before  the  latter  date,  that  is  late 
in  1532  or  early  in  1533. 

Calvin's  conversion,  moreover,  does  not  appear  to 
have  been,  as  Lefranc  and  Lecoultre  hold,  one  of 
the  will  only.  It  was,  whenever  it  occurred,  an  en- 
lightening   of     the    understanding,    no    less    than    a 


1533]  Religious  Development  97 

determination  to  act.  Henceforth  to  the  eager  young 
humanist  religion  became  the  chief  concern.  If  we  ask 
for  the  human  agents  in  this  transformation,  however, 
the  answer  is  difficuk.  The  situation  in  Paris  in  the 
summer  and  autumn  of  1533  was  extremely  favourable 
to  the  spread  of  Reformed  opinions.  Lang's  suggestion 
of  the  Paris  Lenten  preacher  of  that  year,  Gerard 
Roussel,  as  Calvin's  guide  into  the  freer  faith  is  not 
impossible.  Roussel  and  Calvin  were  certainly  friends 
in  1533,  and  on  the  strength  of  this  friendship,  Calvin 
upbraided  Roussel,  in  1537,  for  lack  of  courage  to  refuse 
a  bishopric  and  leave  the  Roman  communion.^  But, 
if  our  conjecture  as  to  the  date  of  the  conversion  is  at 
all  justified,  it  may  more  probably  have  taken  place  at 
Orleans  during  Calvin's  second  sojourn  there,  when 
representative  of  the  Picard  "nation";  and  as  to  its 
human  agents,  if  any,  it  is  in  that  case  hard  to  say. 
Calvin  himself  referred  it  to  the  agency  of  God;  and, 
if  we  have  understood  his  letter  to  Sadoleto  aright,^  it 
was  the  conviction  that  God  spoke  directly  to  him 
through  the  Scriptures  that  formed  the  central  element 
in  that  experience.  That  conviction  might  have  come 
to  such  a  man  as  Calvin  in  the  quiet  of  his  study  with 
no  less  force  than  if  impressed  upon  him  by  public 
discourse  or  friendly  exhortation. 

If,  then,  Calvin  had  come,  by  November,  1533,  to 
doctrinal  positions  now  universally  recognised  as  char- 
acteristic of  Protestantism,  and  the  logical  outcome  of 
which  was  soon  to  be  separation  from  Rome,  it  by  no 


^  Opera,  v.  279-312;   xxi.  127. 
*  Ante,  p.  73. 
7 


98  John  Calvin  [1528- 

means  follows  that  he  recognised  the  full  consequences 
of  his  beUefs  or  regarded  himself  as  a  Protestant.  On 
August  23d  he  was  present  at  a  meeting  of  the  Chapter 
at  Noyon.  On  October  27th,  he  could  express  himself 
to  Daniel  in  a  way  that  showed  that  he  held  himself 
in  full  s}Tnpathy  mth  the  humanistic  reformers.^  He 
also  sent  to  Daniel  a  treatise  of  Roussel  for  confidential 
circulation,  and  he  may  well  have  shared  Roussel's 
hope  that  the  Church  of  France  might  be  reformed 
from  within  by  purer  preaching  and  truer  doctrine, 
without  breach  of  its  historic  continuity.  Nothing 
more  radical  than  this  is  necessarily  involved  even  in 
Cop's  Address.  Certainly  it  was  not  till  the  following 
May  that  Calvin  resigned  his  benefices. 

It  was  an  ancient  custom  of  the  University  that  the 
newly  elected  incumbent  of  the  annual  office  of  rector 
should  give  an  inaugural  oration  before  the  academic 
world  and  such  of  the  general  pubHc  as  chose  to  be 
present  in  the  Church  of  the  Mathurins  on  All  Saints'. 
The  new  rector,  Nicolas  Cop,  Calvin's  warm  friend, 
had  sufficiently  followed  his  distinguished  father's  pro- 
fession to  have  graduated  as  Bachelor  in  Medicine;  but, 
since  1530,  he  had  taught  philosophy  in  the  College 
Sainte-Barbe.  The  brief  rectorate  of  only  twenty-one 
days  since  his  election  had  seen  him  actively  inter- 
vening in  the  religious  questions  of  the  hour  as  a  sup- 
porter of  Marguerite  d'Angouleme  and  of  the  freer 
type  of  preaching  which  she  countenanced.  When  the 
conservatives  of  the  University  had  desired  to  condemn 
that  queen's  Le  miroir  de  Vdme  pecheresse,  and  had 


^Ante,  p.  68. 


1533]  Religious  Development  99 

been  called  to  account  by  King  Francis,  as  has  been 
already  narrated/  Cop  had  summoned  the  Faculties  to 
consider  the  royal  letters  on  October  24th,  and  had  shown 
himself  a  determined  and  successful  defender  of  the 
queenly  author  in  the  heated  debate  that  followed.  He 
had  therefore  already  entered  the  lists  as  a  champion 
of  reform  as  represented  by  Marguerite  d'Angouleme, 
and  he  now  determined  to  make  his  inaugural  oration 
tell  in  the  same  cause.  He  would  make  a  declaration 
of  significance  against  conservatism  and  in  favour  of 
reform;  and  so  bold  was  the  utterance,  considering 
the  time  and  place  of  its  delivery,  that  it  became  at 
once  the  sensation  of  the  hour. 

Pierson  has,  indeed,  queried  whether  Cop's  Ad- 
dress is  really  known  to  us."*  His  criticism  has,  how- 
ever, been  destructively  answered  by  Lang.^  A  letter 
of  Bucer,  probably  in  January  1534,  to  Ambrose 
Blaurer  of  Constance,  speaks  of  the  dehvery  of  an 
oration  by  Cop,  with  such  insistence  on  justifying  faith 
as  to  cause  his  flight/  Consonant  with  this  contem- 
porary testimony  as  to  the  nature  of  Cop's  Address 
are  the  statements  of  CoUadon  in  his  Lije  oj  Calvin  of 
1565.5  That  the  Address  which  we  now  have  is  that 
pronounced  by  Cop  is  furthermore  attested  by  an  anno- 
tation in  a  sixteenth  century  hand  on  the  manuscript 


1  A7ite,  p.  68. 

=  Studien  over  Kalvijn,  pp.  72-78. 

3  Die  dltesten  theologischeti  Arheiten  Calvin's,  in  the  Neue  Jahr- 
hiicher  fur  deutsche  Theologie,  ii.  273-282  (1893). 

4  Herminjard,  iii.  129. 

5  Opera,  xxi.  56. 


lOO 


John  Calvin  [1528- 


of  a  portion  of  it  now  in  the  Library  of  Geneva/ 
and  is  borne  out  by  its  contents.  There  is  therefore 
no  reasonable  question  that  Cop's  academic  oration 
of  November  i,  1533,  has  been  preserved. 

While  Cop's  Address  is  therefore  well  known,  Cal- 
vin's authorship  of  it  is  by  no  means  certain.  In 
favour  of  that  authorship  may  be  urged  the  facts 
that  Colladon  evidently  beheved  the  work  to  be  that 
of  Calvin  when,  about  1570,  he  prepared  Calvin's 
papers  for  the  press  ;^  but,  above  all,  that  the  fragment 
of  the  Address  now  in  the  Library  at  Geneva  is  indis- 
putably in  Calvin's  handwriting.^  Against  it  are  the 
considerations  that  the  style  seems  hardly  equal  to  Cal- 
vin's usual  brilHant  Latinity ;  that  Colladon,  in  his  Lije 
of  1565,  speaks  only  of  Calvin's  friendship  with  Cop, 
not  of  any  authorship  of  Cop's  Address;  and  that  only 
in  his  final  Life,  that  of  1575,  does  Beza  declare  that 
"Calvin  furnished  it."  ^  These  facts  raise  the  ques- 
tion whether  Colladon's  attribution  of  authorship  to 
Calvin,  witnessed  by  his  inscription  on  the  manuscript, 
was  not  simply  a  deduction  from  a  discovery,  after  his 


1  The  hand  is  certainly  that  of  Nicolas  Colladon,  Herminjard,  iii. 
418;  Miiller,  Calvins  Bekehrung,  pp.  226,  228.  The  fragment  at 
Geneva,  containing  the  first  sheet,  is  printed  in  Herminjard,  iii. 
418-420;  Opera,  ix.  872-876;  and  given  in  photographic  facsimile 
by  Muller,  op.  clt.  The  whole  Address  is  printed  (poorly)  from 
a  manuscript  in  the  Thomas-archiv  (now  Stadtarchw)  at  Strassburg, 
in  Opera,  xb.  30-36. 

2  So  even  Miiller  holds,  p.  231. 

3  Herminjard,  iii.  420;  Opera,  ix.,  Preface,  Ixxii;  Lang,  op.  cit., 
p.  274;  Muller,  p.  224,  who  cites  the  emphatic  testimony  of  the 
7)resent  director  of  the  Geneva  Library,  M.  H.  V.  Aubert. 

4  Opera,  xxi.  123. 


1533]  Religious   Development  loi 

Lije  of  1565  was  written,  of  that  manuscript  in  Cal- 
vin's well-known  handwriting.  Professor  Miiller,  to 
whom  this  striking  suggestion  is  due,  has  furthermore 
presented  evidence  that  the  complete  form  of  the  Ad- 
dress preserved  in  Strassburg  is  not  a  perfected  oration 
based  on  Calvin's  manuscript  as  its  first  draft,  as 
Lang  held,  but  that  both  are  copies  of  a  now  lost 
original.'  Calvin  may  simply  have  desired  to  pre- 
serve his  friend's  work. 

Whether  Calvin  actually  composed  any  part  of  Cop's 
Address  is  therefore  at  best  doubtful.  The  weight  of 
evidence  certainly  now  inclines  to  the  negative  side. 
But  of  Calvin's  hearty  interest  in  the  Address  there 
can  be  no  question, — the  existence  of  the  manuscript 
in  his  handwriting  is  sufficient  evidence  of  that,  if  of 
no  more.  Even  though  not  his  composition,  it  can 
hardly  have  been  dehvered  without  consultation  be- 
tween the  two  friends.  It  is  impossible  to  suppose 
Calvin  ignorant  of  it.  In  view  of  his  intimacy  with 
Cop  it  may  therefore  properly  be  cited  as  a  witness 
to  the  religious  development  which  Calvin  had  attained 
at  the  date  of  its  deHvery.  It  is  no  less  interesting  in 
its  revelation  of  the  books  by  wliich  the  spiritual  life 
of  the  circle  of  which  Cop  and  Calvin  were  members 
had  been  fostered. 

Its  foiTTi  is  that  of  a  sermon.  The  Address  opens  with 
an  apostrophe  to  "Christian  Philosophy," — that  is  to 
the  Gospel,  as  ascertained  by  a  study  of  its  sources, 
and  distinguished  from  current  scholastic  theology.     As 


I  Lang,  op.  cit.,  p.  28;    Miiller,  pp.  231-237. 


I02 


John  Calvin  [1528- 


Lang  has  discovered/  both  the  phrase  and  the  treat- 
ment are  borrowed  from  Erasmus.  The  thought  and 
not  a  little  even  of  the  language  of  this  introduction 
rest  back  on  Erasmus's  Preface  to  the  third  edition  of 
his  Greek  New  Testament,  pubHshed  in  1524.  This 
"Christian  Philosophy,"  the  orator  declares,  shows  us 
that  we  are  sons  of  God.  To  proclaim  it,  God  became 
man.  Those  who  have  its  knowledge  exceed  other 
men  as  men  in  general  are  superior  to  beasts.  It  is 
the  worthiest  of  sciences.  It  reveals  the  remission  of 
sins  by  the  mere  grace  of  God.  It  shows  that  the  Holy 
Spirit,  who  sanctifies  the  heart  and  guides  to  Hfe  eter- 
nal, is  promised  to  all  Christians.  It  gives  peace  to 
distressed  minds  and  leads  to  good  and  happy  hving. 
Having  thus  praised  the  Gospel  as  a  whole,  the  speaker 
remarks  that  some  selection  from  its  wealth  must  be 
made  if  the  limits  of  a  discourse  are  to  be  observed, 
and  he  therefore  takes  as  his  text  a  verse  from  the 
Gospel  read  in  the  appointed  service  of  the  day: 
"Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit."  The  introduction 
concludes  with  a  brief  invocation  of  the  aid  of  Christ 
as  "the  true  and  only  intercessor  with  the  Father,'' 
that  the  discourse  to  follow  "may  praise  Him,  may 
savour  of  Him,  may  breathe  Him,  may  call  Him  to 
mind";  and,  having  said  this,  it  adds  the  then  cus- 
tomary salutation  to  the  Virgin, — a  combination  that 
illustrates  the  partially  developed  status  of  the  reform 
movement  at  Paris. 

If  the  writer  of  the  discourse  thus  reveals  the  influ- 
ence of  Erasmus  in  his  introduction,  the  first  part  of 


*  Bekehrung,  pp.  44-46;    Opera,  xb.  30-31. 


1533]  Religious  Development  103 

the  body  of  the  Address  which  follows  shows  even 
greater  use  of  a  sermon  preached  by  Luther,  on  occa- 
sion of  the  same  church  festival,  probably  in  1522,  in 
which  the  German  reformer,  in  treating  of  the  Beati- 
tudes, had  discussed  the  relations  of  Law  and  Gospel.^ 
Thanks  to  a  Latin  translation,  by  Martin  Bucer  of 
Strassburg,  of  the  collection  of  Luther's  sermons  in 
which  this  has  a  place,  it  had  been  accessible  to  the 
learned  world  since  1525,  and  later  editions  had  been 
issued  in  1528  and  1530.  Though  not  expressly  men- 
tioned, it  may  have  been  one  of  the  volumes  of  the  re- 
formers, which  Berthold  Haller  found  more  or  less 
openly  for  sale  at  Paris  in  August,  1533.''  In  words 
modelled  on  this  discourse  of  Luther  the  Parisian 
speaker  tells  his  hearers:  ''The  Law  drives  by  com- 
mands, threatens,  urges,  promises  no  goodwill.  The 
Gospel  drives  by  no  threats,  does  not  force  by  com- 
mands, teaches  God's  utmost  goodwill  towards  us." 
He  encounters,  as  Luther  does,  the  objection  that  Christ 
had  said  in  the  passage  under  consideration,  ''For 
great  is  your  reward  in  heaven."  Are  not  the  Beati- 
tudes then  a  new  law,  the  keeping  of  which  earns  a 
reward?  No,  they  set  forth  the  Gospel;  and  the 
author  explains  with  an  illustration  all  his  own,  Hken- 
ing  him  who  lives  deserving  of  the  Beatitudes  to  a  son 
who  has  striven  in  a  father's  hfetime  to  do  that  father's 
pleasure,  and  who  receives  an  inheritance,  which  may 
be  called  a  reward  of  faithful  sonship,  though  in  no 
sense  a  debt  due  for  fiHal  service.     The  author  then 


*  Lang,  Bekehnmg,  pp.  47-54;    Opera,  xb.  31-33. 
a  Herminjard,  iii.  75. 


I04 


John  Calvin  [1528- 


pays  his  respects  to  the  ''sophists" — unquestionably 
the  consen^ative  Roman  theologians  of  the  University 
of  Paris — who  "contend  perpetually  about  trifles"  to 
the  neglect  of  "Christian  Philosophy." 

The  speaker  invokes  the  blessing  of  the  peace- 
makers on  the  controversies  of  the  time.  "Would  that 
in  this  our  unhappy  age  we  restore  peace  in  the  Church 
by  the  Word  rather  than  by  the  sword."  But  the  ora- 
tor evidently  foresees  the  impossibility  of  the  fulfil- 
ment of  hig  desire,  and  exclaims,  "Twice  blessed 
are  they  who  endure  persecution  for  righteousness' 
sake";  and  he  closes  with  a  fervently  expressed  wish 
that  God  "may  open  our  minds  that  we  may  beUeve 
the  Gospel." 

That  this  lofty  and  spiritually-minded  Address  was 
a  carefully  planned  manifesto  in  behalf  of  Protestant- 
ism is  an  opinion  that  has  often  been  expressed.  Of 
its  boldness  there  can  be  no  question.  But  its  wisdom, 
under  the  circumstances  of  its  dehvery,  is  not  so  evident. 
The  reform  movement  had  been  growing  by  the  toler- 
ance of  the  King  and  the  support  of  his  gifted  sister, 
largely  because  it  had  not,  at  Paris,  greatly  passed  the 
bounds  of  orderly  discussion.  True,  it  had  had  its 
martyrs  like  Berquin,  but  the  favourable  situation  of 
the  movement  in  the  year  1533  was  due  in  no  small 
degree  to  a  comparative  moderation  which  had  not  for- 
feited the  goodwill  of  the  King.  Anything  likely  to 
exasperate  the  situation  was,  we  can  now  see,  certain 
to  lead  to  repression  of  the  innovating  forces.  But  that 
was  not  then  so  apparent.  Cop  may  have  believed 
that  the  royal  authority  would  support  him  as  it  had 


1533]  Religious   Development  105 

already    aided    Roussel    through    Marguerite     d'An- 
gouleme. 

Much  more  probably  there  was  no  deep  and  far- 
sighted  plan  behind  the  Address.  It  grew,  almost  on 
the  moment,  out  of  the  impulsive  enthusiasm  of  a  young 
man  who,  suddenly  called  to  a  great  position  in  the 
University,  had  found  himself  a  leader  in  resistance 
to  an  attempt  to  discipline  the  scholarly,  reformatory, 
and  popular  Queen  of  Navarre,  and  the  humanistic 
reformers  whom  she  favoured.  The  opportunity 
to  continue  before  a  larger  public  the  discussion  of 
the  principles  involved  in  the  University  session  of 
October  24th,  of  which  their  minds  were  full,  and  in 
which  the  young  rector  had  borne  a  conspicuous  part, 
is  a  sufficient  explanation  of  Cop's  action  and  of  Cal- 
vin's aid  if  such  aid  was  given.  Protestant  in  doctrine 
as  the  Address  is,  and  opposed  to  the  "sophists"  of 
the  Sorbonne,  it  betrays  no  evidence  that  its  author 
thought  that  he  was  putting  himself  outside  the  com- 
munion of  the  Roman  Church.  Ideas  and  expressions 
are  borrowed  from  Luther;  but  the  German  reformer 
is  not  mentioned,  and  it  is  his  doctrine  of  the  way  of 
salvation,  not  his  breach  with  the  Papacy,  that  interests 
him.  Yet  the  Address  clearly  shows  the  sources  from 
which  Cop  and  probably  Calvin  were  drawing  their 
spiritual  life.  The  New  Testament,  Erasmus,  and 
Luther  had  already  made  Calvin  a  Protestant  in  most 
of  his  behefs,  and  would  inevitably  place  him  on  the 
Protestant  side  when  lines  of  division  should  be  more 
closely  drawn. 


CHAPTER  V 

FLIGHT  FOR  SAFETY  IN  CONCEALMENT  AND  VOLUNTARY 
EXILE 

THE  effect  of  Cop's  bold  Address  was  to  show 
that  the  strength  of  the  conservative  party  in 
Paris  was  greater  than  its  speaker  and  his  friends  could 
have  anticipated,  if,  as  is  unlikely,  they  had  dehber- 
ately  counted  the  cost  before  its  deHvery  on  the  first  of 
November.  They  doubtless  expected  the  resentful 
hostility  of  the  Theological  Faculty,  which  he  had  so 
severely  arraigned.  But  a  more  formidable  adversary 
ahnost  immediately  appeared  in  the  great  judicial  court, 
the  Parlement  of  Paris,  aroused  not  improbably  by 
the  efforts  of  the  exasperated  theologians.  On  com- 
plaint of  two  Franciscan  monks,  the  Parlement  now 
began  proceedings  against  Cop  for  heresy.  He  an- 
swered at  once  by  summoning  a  session  of  the  Faculties 
of  the  University,  which  met  on  November  19th  in  the 
same  Church  of  the  Mathurins  in  which  his  discourse 
had  been  delivered.  Before  this  academic  assembly 
the  young  rector  urged  that  the  proceedings  of  his  ac- 
cusers and  of  Parlement  were  an  invasion  of  the  privi- 
leges of  the  University,  which  should  have  had  at  least 
primary  jurisdiction  in  the  matter  of  the  alleged  heresy 
of  its  officers.  The  contention  would  ordinarily  have 
been  effective;  but,  thanks  probably  to  a  vastly  pre- 
vailing want  of  sympathy  with  his  radical  theological 

106 


[1533-1535]   Concealment  and  Exile  T07 

opinions,  Cop  found  but  a  divided  support.  The 
Faculties  of  Medicine  and  of  Arts  took  his  side,  those 
of  Theology  and  of  Law  were  opposed;  and  no  action 
by  the  University  as  a  whole  could  be  had.^  Cop  felt 
the  ground  slipping  from  under  his  feet.  On  Novem- 
ber 26th,  proceedings  were  begun  by  the  Faculty  of 
Theology  which  resulted  in  the  arrest  of  Roussel  and 
of  a  preacher  whom  we  shall  meet  at  Geneva,  EHe 
Coraud.''  The  same  day  the  Parlement  stated  the  sit- 
uation to  the  King,  and  on  December  loth  he  wrote 
from  Lyons  enjoining  strict  suppression  of  "the  Lu- 
theran sect."  3  Many  of  the  Reform  party  were  thrown 
into  prison.  Cop  himself  avoided  this  fate  by  flight, 
apparently  before  November  26th,4  and  ultimate  refuge 
in  the  shelter  of  the  Protestant  city  of  Basel,  which  had, 
years  before,  been  his  father's  home.  Soon  a  reward 
of  three  hundred  crowns  was  offered  for  his  capture 
alive  or  dead.^ 

These  experiences  of  his  friend  must  have  filled  Cal- 
vin with  well-grounded  anxiety  for  his  own  safety. 
His  relations  to  Cop  had  been  so  intimate  as  to  involve 
him  in  suspicion.  The  authorities,  probably  late  in 
November,  therefore  sent  to  his  room  in  the  College 
Fortet  which  had  been  his  home  when  in  Paris  since 
1 531,  hoping  to  effect  his  arrest.     News  of  this  intention 

1  Bulaeus,  Hist.  Univ.  Paris.,  vi.  239. 

2  Herminjard,  iii.  146,  note. 

3  Ihid.f  114. 

4  King  Francis,  whose  information  probably  came  from  the  letters 
of  Parlement,  speaks  of  his  flight  in  his  order  of  December  loth. 
Ibid.,  117.     He  reached  Basel  January  25,  1534.     Doumergue,  i.  354. 

s  Herminjard,  iii.  130. 


io8  John  Calvin  [1533- 

reached  him  in  season  to  effect  his  escape/  His  papers 
were  seized,  to  the  peril  of  his  friends,  but  he  himself 
found  refuge,  according  to  a  late  but  not  impossible 
report,  at  Noyon,^  whither  the  same  account  says,  with 
much  greater  likeUhood  of  legendary  embellishment, 
that  he  made  his  way  disguised  as  a  vine-dresser. 
Calvin  cannot,  however,  have  been  as  conspicuously 
before  the  public  as  an  advocate  of  reform  as  Cop, 
Roussel,  or  Coraud;  and  his  self-imposed  exile  from 
Paris  was  brief  at  this  time.  Marguerite  d'Angouleme 
is  said  to  have  interested  herself  in  his  behalf.  Pro- 
ceedings against  Calvin  were  dropped ;  and  he  returned 
to  Paris  perhaps  to  be  received  honourably  by  this 
benefactress  who  had  a  welcome  for  scholars  of  the  new 
learning  and  humanistic  reformatory  impulse.^  Even 
the  friendliness  of  this  reception,  if  it  took  place,  gave 
Calvin  no  sense  of  security;  and,  partly  because  Paris 
was  a  place  of  peril,  partly  also  to  seek  the  peace  and 
scholarly  retirement  which  he  loved,  he  soon  left  the 
city.  If  a  conjecture  may  be  hazarded  where  the 
chronology  is  so  obscure,  this  second  departure  was 
in  the  opening  month  of  1534,  or  even  possibly  in  the 
last  days  of  1533. 

Fortunately  an  agreeable  asylum  opened  for  him  at 
once  at  Angouleme,  some  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
southwest  of  Paris,  in  the  home  of  a  young  clerical 


1  p.  Masson,  Elogiorum,  p.  414,  alleges  that  he  escaped  by  a  window, 
but  Beza  and  Colladon,  Opera,  xxi.  56,  123,  simply  say  that  he  was 
not  found  at  home.     Compare  Doumergue,  i.  354. 

2  Jacques  Desmay,  in  Archives  curieuses,  v.  393. 

3  Beza,  in  Opera,  xxi.  123.  The  whole  matter  is  doubtful.  Com- 
pare Muller,  p.  214,  and  Wernle,  p.  93. 


1535]  Concealment  and  Exile  109 

friend,  Louis  du  Tillct,  seigneur  of  Haultmont,  c;inon 
of  the  cathedral  of  Angouleme  and  rector  also  of  the 
village  church  of  Claix  about  ten  miles  out  of  the  city. 
The  du  Tillets  were  of  a  family  of  Angouleme  which 
had  risen  into  prominence  in  the  service  of  the  State. 
The  father  had  been  Vice-President  of  the  royal  Cham- 
ber of  Accounts  at  Paris.  Of  Louis's  three  older 
brothers,  one  had  held  and  another  was  now  holding 
the  office  of  chief  Registrar  of  the  Parlement  of  Paris, 
and  a  third  had,  like  Louis,  entered  the  Church  in 
which  he  was  to  become,  at  a  much  later  period  (1562), 
bishop  of  Meaux.  The  family  was  no  less  conspicuous 
for  its  learning;  and  the  home  at  Angouleme  held  a 
remarkable  library,  said  to  have  contained  three  or 
four  thousand  manuscripts  and  printed  books. ^  How 
Calvin's  friendship  with  the  young  canon  may  have 
been  begun  there  is  no  certain  information;  but  he 
seems  to  have  been  about  Calvin's  age,  and  the  con- 
jecture lies  close  at  hand  that  they  were  fellow-students. 
The  du  Tillets,  like  the  Cops,  belonged  to  the  class  that 
had  profited  by  royal  favour  and  had  also  welcomed  the 
new  learning,  and  among  such  people  the  humanistic 
conceptions  of  reform  as  advocated  by  Erasmus,  Le 
Fevre,  and  Roussel,  found  ready  hearing.  Calvin  and 
Louis  du  Tillet  had  many  studious  tastes  in  common,^ 
and  a  good  deal  of  rehgious  sympathy;  but  du  Tillet, 
as  compared  w^ith  Calvin,  was  a  man  of  weak  courage. 


^  Florimond  de  Raemond,  Naissance,  etc.,  p.  885. 

*  Calvin  said  of  du  Tillet  to  Daniel,  probably  in  March,  1534,  "the 
kindness  of  my  patron  ...  is  such  that  I  readily  understand  that 
it  is  shown  for  the  sake  of  letters,  not  for  myself,"  Opera,  xb.  37. 


no  John  Calvin  [1533- 

and  of  convictions  which,  though  inclining  him  to  throw 
in  his  lot  with  the  reformers  for  a  season,  led  him  ulti- 
mately back  into  the  Roman  communion.  At  this 
time,  however,  he  and  Calvin  were  undoubtedly  in 
substantial  religious  agreement. 

Here  at  Angouleme,  and  at  the  neighbouring  Claix, 
Calvin,  as  he  told  his  friend  Daniel  in  a  letter  inten- 
tionally indefinite  as  to  his  whereabouts  and  occupa- 
tions,^ found  not  merely  a  kind  "patron"  in  du  Tillet, 
whose  generosity  he  recognises  in  the  warmest  terms, 
but  opportunity  for  study.  The  letter  shows  that  he 
is  valued  by  his  host  not  merely  as  a  friend,  but  for 
what  he  has  to  give;  and  the  religious  note  now  domi- 
nant in  Calvin's  life  sounds  clear  in  his  expression  of 
gratitude  to  God  to  whose  wise  providence  he  cheer- 
fully intrusts  his  future.  Calvin's  note  to  his  friend 
implies  that  he  was  aiding  du  Tillet  in  literary  studies, 
and  this  intimation  gives  countenance  to  the  statement 
of  Florimond  de  Raemond,  published  more  than  seventy 
years  later,  but  probably  written  at  a  period  consid- 
erably less  remote,  that  Calvin  instructed  his  friend  in 
Greek.^  According  to  the  same  writer,  he  was  popu- 
larly nicknamed  "the  Greek  of  Claix,"  from  the  name 
of  the  country  parish  where  du  Tillet  was  beneficed, 
and  where  apparently  he  resided  a  portion  of  the  time^ 
At  du  Tillet' s  home,  or,  if  Florimond  de  Raemond  was 
correctly  informed,  at  Girac,  a  house  belonging  to  the 
prior  of  Bouteville,  Antoine  Chaillou,  outside  of  An- 
gouleme, on  the  road  to  Claix,  Calvin  was  accustomed 


^  Opera,  xb.  37. 

^  Naissance,  etc.,  pp.  883-885;   see  also  Doumergue,  i.  370-373. 


IS35]  Concealment  and  Exile  m 

to  meet  with  the  prior  just  named,  with  the  abbot  of 
Bassac,  with  du  Tillet,  and  du  Tillet's  cousin,  the 
seigneur  de  Torsac.  Among  Calvin's  acquaintances  at 
Angoulcme  was  also,  by  his  own  testimony,'  the  young 
brother  of  the  scholar  last  named,  Pierre  de  la  Place, 
later  to  be  an  eminent  Huguenot  lawyer  and  one  of  the 
victims  of  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew.  In  this 
company  Calvin  discussed  not  merely  congenial  topics 
relating  to  classical  learning,  but  matters  of  religion; 
and  evidently  with  sympathetic  appreciation,  for  Beza, 
as  well  as  Colladon,  report  that,  at  du  Tillet's  request, 
he  wrote  Evangelical  sermons  for  the  use  of  certain 
pastors  of  the  region  who  had  caught  something  of 
the  reformatory  spirit.^ 

Of  greater  significance  for  his  future  was  the  begin- 
ning, in  this  period  of  retirement  at  Angouleme,  of  the 
studies  which  were  to  result  in  the  first  edition  of  his 
Institutes,  How  far  they  had  made  progress  by  the  time 
he  was  to  leave  France  there  is  no  means  to  determine ; 
but  a  careful  examination  of  such  hints  as  Calvin's 
own  writings  afford  confirms  at  least  enough  of  Flori- 
mond  de  Raemond's  assertion  that  Calvin  wrote  part  of 
the  Institutes  at  Angouleme  to  carry  the  conviction  that 
Calvin  must  have  planned  and  made  preparation  for 
this  great  service  to  Protestantism  while  du  Tillet's  guest, 
and  doubtless  with  the  aid  of  du  Tillet's  notable  library .^ 

Calvin's  friendship  for  Gerard  Roussel  has  already 
been  mentioned.    Warmly  committed  to  the  reform 

1  Opera,  xiii.  68 1. 

2  Ihid.,  xxi.  56,  57,  123. 

3  The  whole  subject  is  carefully  discussed  by  the  Strassburg  editors, 
Opera,  iii.,  Introduction,  pp.  xi-xiv. 


112  John   Calvin  [1533- 

movement  which  Roussel  had  represented  at  Paris  and 
for  which  that  eloquent  mystic  had  been  suffering  a 
brief  imprisonment  during  the  stormy  days  after  the 
delivery  of  Cop's  Address,  it  was  natural  that  Calvin 
should  desire  to  make  the  acquaintance  of  Roussel's 
venerable  master,  the  leader  of  the  humanistic  reformers 
of  France,  Jacques  Le  Fevre.  The  aged  scholar  was 
spending  his  last  days  under  the  protection  of  Mar- 
guerite d'Angouleme  at  Nerac,  the  little  capital  of 
French  Navarre;  and  thither  Calvin  journeyed  for  a 
brief  visit  to  the  kindly  old  man.^  The  journey  may 
be  placed,  with  considerable  probability,  about  the  be- 
ginning of  April,  1534,  and,  if  so,  is  interestingly 
coincident  with  the  publication,  at  Antwerp,  early 
in  the  same  month,  of  Le  Fevre's  corrected  and 
revised  edition  of  his  translation  of  the  Bible  into 
French.  2 

Calvin's  w^ork,  in  this  period,  was  still  that  of  the  re- 
tiring scholar  rather  than  of  the  preacher  or  public 
reformer.  That  he  was  yet  to  become,  but  not  till 
circumstances  were  to  force  him  into  a  role  foreign  to 
his  natural  disposition.  He  was  already  planning  his 
great  exposition  of  Christian  doctrine,  though  it  was 
but  a  brief  handbook  that  he  yet  had  in  mind.  He  was 
already  a  leader  in  the  little  circles  which  he  quietly 
influenced.  His  power  to  make  friends,  especially 
among  those  of  good  position  and  scholarly  tastes, 
was  remarkable.  But  the  public  Evangelical  activity 
traditionally  attributed   to   him   before   his   departure 


^  Beza  and  Colladon,  Opera,  xxi.  57,  123;  Doumergue,  i.  380-415. 
'Doumergue,  i.  380,  401. 


1535]  Concealment  and   Exile  113 

from  France,  and  illustraUd  in  ])()])ular  nomcnclalurc  by 
so-called  "Calvin's  pulpits,"  at  Bourges,Nerac,CIairac,' 
— places  destined  later  to  suffer  for  their  acceptance  of 
the  Protestant  position  in  religion — and  elsewhere,  is 
greatly  exaggerated.  What  he  did  for  the  Evangelical 
cause — and  his  v^ork  wsls  not  small — was  still  by  incon- 
spicuous and  personal  relations.  Unjustified  as  was 
the  taunt  thrown  at  Calvin  in  December,  1538,  by  du 
Tillet,  then  returned  to  the  Roman  communion,  this 
former  intimate  friend  witnesses  at  least  to  the  private 
character  of  Calvin's  efforts  in  this  period  when  he 
says:  "It  is  before  those  to  the  greater  part  of  whom 
you  know  your  doctrine  to  be  pleasing  that  you  main- 
tain it,  not  elsewhere,  for  you  have  abandoned  your 
country  because  you  did  not  dare  to  set  it  forth  and 
maintain  it  publicly  there."  "^ 

Calvin's  development  since  the  commotion  aroused 
by  Cop's  Address  had  compelled  him  to  leave  Paris 
was  leading  him  to  a  decision  which  would  sever  for- 
mally his  connection  with  the  Roman  Church.  He 
had  held  benefices  at  Noyon  since  May,  1521.  He  was 
now  approaching  the  age  of  twenty-five,  the  normal 
time  for  ordination  to  the  priesthood,  when  a  decision 
as  to  his  personal  relations  to  the  ecclesiastical  duties 
thus  far  discharged  by  his  deputies  was  to  be  expected.-^ 
These  motives  counselled  a  determination  of  his  own 
future.  Should  he  go  forward,  like  Roussel,  du 
Tillet,  or  other  of   his  humanistic  reformatory  friends, 


^  Doumergue,  i.  416. 

2  Opera,  xb.  299. 

3  Doumergue,  i.  426. 

8 


114  John  Calvin  [1533- 

holding  doctrines  in  many  respects  Evangelical,  but 
refusing  to  break  with  the  Church  which  they  hoped 
to  reform  from  within,  and  accepting  promotion  in  its 
service?  Or  should  he  come  out  from  it  altogether? 
The  decision  must  have  been  a  difficult  one.  Honours, 
literary  opportunity,  even  possibly  greater  usefulness, 
might  easily  seem  to  sway  the  balance  in  favour  of  a 
conclusion  to  remain.  Exile,  poverty,  and  struggle 
could  alone,  apparently,  result  from  separation  from 
the  Roman  Church.  But  Calvin's  mind  was  deter- 
mined. On  May  4,  1534,  the  first  certain  date  in  Cal- 
vin's career  since  that  of  Cop's  Address,  his  chaplaincy 
at  the  cathedral  at  Noyon,  vacant  by  Calvin's  resig- 
nation, was  transferred  to  another  by  the  Chapter;  ^ 
and  at  or  about  the  same  date  Calvin  laid  aside  his 
rectorship  at  Pont-l'Eveque.''  Probably  he  had  taken 
the  long  journey  across  France  from  Nerac  to  Noyon 
to  make  the  resignation  in  person;  certainly  he  was  in 
Noyon  later  in  the  same  month. 

The  time  was  one  of  excitement  and  apprehension 
in  the  city.  On  January  19th,  previous,  a  procession 
had  been  held  in  expiation  of  the  heretical  disorders 
of  the  age;  on  May  6th,  two  days  after  Calvin's  resigned 
benefice  had  been  given  to  his  successor,  an  investigation 
based  on  a  charge  of  heresy  was  begun,  as  secretly  as 
possible,  by  the  Chapter  against  his  quick-tempered 
and  contumacious  older  brother,  Charles.  John  Calvin 
himself  could  hardly  hope  to  escape  suspicion  under 
such  circumstances,  however  circumspect  he  had  thus 


^Records,  in  Lefranc,  Jeunesse,  p.  201. 

"  Desmay,  in  Archives  curieuses,  p.  395;   Doumergue,  i.  425. 


THE  CATHEDRAL,    NOYO.N. 
(.Reproduced  by  permission  of  Georges  Compiegne,  NoyonJ 


1535]  Concealment  and  Exile  115 

far  been  in  avoidance  of  publicity  in  the  advocacy  of 
Reformed  doctrines.  It  is  of  great  interest  therefore 
to  find  that  Calvin  was  imprisoned  at  Noyon  on  May 
26th  ''for  uproar  made  in  the  church  on  the  eve  of 
Holy  Trinity,"  three  days  before.'  The  place  of  his 
confinement,  the  prison  of  the  Chapter  known  as  La 
Porte  Corbaut  is  still  standing,  a  little  building,  strongly 
barred,  containing  a  small  court-room,  below  which 
are  two  dungeons  and  above  which  are  two  cells  of 
less  forbidding  aspect.^  From  this  confinement  Calvin 
was  released  on  the  eighth  day  of  incarceration,  only 
to  be  rearrested  and  again  imprisoned  on  June  5th, 
two  days  later.  How  long  this  second  confinement 
may  have  lasted,  or  under  what  circumstances  he  was 
finally  set  free,  there  is  no  means  at  present  of  forming 
an  opinion;  but  in  view  of  the  very  considerable  ac- 
tivity which  he  was  yet  to  show  before  leaving  France, 
and  the  time  that  it  must  have  required,  his  second 
imprisonment  cannot  have  been  more  than  a  few  weeks 
in  duration  at  longest.  It  may,  like  his  first,  have  been 
for  a  few  days  only. 

Unfortunately  little  can  definitely  be  affirmed  regard- 
ing the  circumstances  of  Calvin's  arrest  in  his  native 
city.  Lang's  view  that  the  "uproar"  in  church  was 
due  to  an  attempt  to  proclaim  Evangelical  doctrine  ^ 
has  been  effectively  criticised  by  Doumergue,  who 
points  out  that  such  action  would  have  been  little  in 
consonance   with    Calvin's  character.      Nor  does  the 


^  Records,  Lefranc,  Jeunesse,  p.  21. 

2  Doumergue,  i.  25,  427. 

3  Bekehrutig,  p.  13;    compare  Doumergue,  i.  427. 


ii6  John  Calvin  [1533- 

vacillation  of  the  Noyon  authorities  regarding  Calvin's 
imprisonment  indicate  that  they  had  any  clearly  defined 
charge  against  him,  such  as  would  have  been  furnished 
by  a  pubhc  attack  on  Roman  worship  or  doctrine.  The 
conjecture  would  seem  more  probable  by  far  that  pop- 
ular opinion  judged  Calvin  to  be  a  "heretic"  and  found 
expression  in  an  outbreak  in  the  church.  His  arrest 
followed;  but  the  charges  against  him  very  probably 
did  not  seem  sufficiently  warranted  to  be  pressed,  though 
suspicion  availed  to  place  him  twice  for  a  brief  period 
in  custody.  Fortunately  for  the  future  reformer  his  ar- 
rest and  imprisonment  did  not  prove  the  road  to  the  stake. 
With  this  imprisonment  two  of  the  most  careful  of 
recent  students  of  Calvin's  history,  Lefranc  and  Dou- 
mergue,  connect  whatever  slight  shred  of  fact  may 
have  served  as  a  thread  on  which  to  hang  one  of  the 
most  baseless  and  absurd,  as  well  as  one  of  the  most 
persistent  of  the  calumnies  by  which  Calvin's  memory 
has  been  assailed.  In  the  bitter  controversies  of  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  Calvin  was  charged, 
especially  after  his  death  and  that  of  the  generation  that 
had  known  him,  with  drunkenness,  licentiousness,  and, 
strangely  enough,  with  ignorance.^  These  contumehes 
were  too  often  in  that  age  the  weapons  of  all  shades 
of  theological  controversialists,  when  \dtuperation  was 
employed  to  an  extent  now  almost  inconceivable.  The 
more  specific  charge,  to  which  reference  is  now  made, 
was  formulated  thirteen  years  after  Calvin's  death, 
by  Jerome  Hermes  Bolsec,  a  one-time  CarmeUte  monk 


I  E.g.  Laingey,  De  Vita  et  Morihus  atque  Rebus  gestis  Haereticorum 
nostri  Temporis,  Paris,  1581.     Doumergue,  i.  429. 


1535]  Concealment  and   Exile  117 

of  Paris,  who  settled,  about  1550,  as  a  Protestant  and 
a  physician  at  Veigy,  near  Geneva.  Falling  into  a 
controversy  with  Calvin,  of  which  an  account  will  be 
given  on  a  later  page,  he  was  banished  from  Geneva 
in  December,  1551;  and  ultimately  returned  to  the 
Roman  Church.  He  naturally  felt  bitterly  toward 
Calvin's  memory;  but  the  revenge  which  he  now  took 
is  one  which  recoils  on  himself  through  the  revelation 
of  his  own  unscrupulous  character.  According  to 
Bolsec's  allegation^  he  had  seen  a  report  prepared 
by  a  "Bertelier,"  (probably  Philibert  BertheHer  is 
meant,)  and  legally  attested  by  the  most  promi- 
nent people  of  Noyon,  whither  he  alleges  Bertelier 
had  been  sent  by  Genevans  desirous  of  investigating 
Calvin's  early  life,  witnessing  that  Calvin  had  been 
convicted  of  heinous  moral  turpitude,^  the  punishment 
for  which  was  then  death  by  fire,  but  that  the  bishop  of 
Noyon  had  commuted  the  extreme  penalty  into  brand- 
ing a  fieur-de-lys  with  a  red-hot  iron,  as  a  perpetual  mark 
of  infamy,  on  the  future  reformer's  shoulder.  No 
evidence  has  ever  been  produced  of  the  existence  of 
such  a  document  as  Bolsec  alleges.  Jacques  Desmay, 
the  earnest  Catholic  writer  who  used  his  stay  as  Advent 
and  Lenten  preacher  at  Noyon  in  1614  and  161 5  to 
learn  all  he  could  of  Calvin's  life  there  by  records  and 
tradition,  found  nothing  of  it.^  An  equally  determined 
Roman  historian  of  Noyon,   Jacques  Le  Vasseur,  in 


1  Histoire    de    la   vie,    mceurs,    actes,    Constance,    et   mort   de    Jean 
Calvin,  Lyons,  1577,  chap.  iv. ;  Lefranc,  Jeunesse,  p.  176. 

2  Genesis  xix.  5. 

3  Pp.  15,  16;  in  fac-simile  in  Doumergue,  i.  434,  435. 


ii8  John  Calvin  [1533- 

his  Annales  of  1633,  expressly  repudiated  it;^  and 
careful  modem  Roman  Catholic  scholars,  such  as 
Kampschulte^  and  Paulus, ^  reject  it  as  "unworthy  of 
serious  refutation."  When  repeated  in  the  name  of 
Cardinal  Richelieu,  in  a  volume  pubhshed  after  the 
death  of  that  statesman-prelate,  it  was  the  immediate 
cause  of  the  elaborate  and  scholarly  defence  of  Cal- 
vin's memory  by  Charles  Drehncourt;^  and  its  utter 
worthlessness  has  been  recently  exhibited  in  examples 
of  historical  criticism  as  brilliant  as  they  are  convincing 
by  Lefranc  ^  and  Doumergue.^  Whatever  explication  of 
the  growth  of  such  a  fable  may  be  found  beside  the 
mahgnant  invention  of  theological  controversialists,  is 
to  be  discovered  in  the  obscurity  of  the  circumstances 
of  Calvin's  imprisonment, — the  first  instance  of  which 
is,  however,  expressly  declared  in  the  records  to  have 
been  ''for  uproar  made  in  the  church," — and  to  the  re- 
markable coincidence  of  name,  reported  by  Desmay  and 
Le  Vasseur.7  They  report  that  in  1550  or  1552,  when 
Calvin  had  long  been  a  well-known  resident  of  Geneva, 
another  John  Calvin,  whom  they  carefully  distinguished 
from  the  reformer,  was  disciplined  by  the  Chapter  at 
Noyon  for  a  breach  of  the  law  of  chastity  less  heinous 
than  that  charged  by  Bolsec.     The  whole  calumny 


1  Pp.  1 1 72;  in  fac-simile  in  Doumergue,  i.  438. 

2  I.  224. 

3  Luther  Lehensende,  1898,  p.  48;  Doumergue,  i.  435. 

4  La  defense  de  Calvin  contre  V outrage  jaite  a  sa  menioire  par  U 
Cardinal  de  Richelieu,  Geneva,  1 663-1 667. 

s  Jeunesse,  pp.  48-52,  175-181. 

6  I.  428-440;  iii.  516. 

7  Remarques,  p,  16;  Annales,  p.  1170;  Doumergue,  i.  435,  436. 


1535]  Concealment  and  Exile  119 

would  be  unworthy  of  discussion  had  the  accusation 
not  been  repeatedly  renewed  by  a  certain  class  of  con- 
troversialists during  the  last  century,  — in  one  instance 
as  recently  as  1898.' 

The  same  uncertainty  as  to  the  date  and  order  of 
events  in  Calvin's  life  which  attaches  to  the  period 
from  Cop's  Address  to  the  resignation  of  his  benefices 
extends  from  the  beginning  of  his  second  imprisonment 
at  Noyon  to  his  departure  from  France.  How  long 
that  imprisonment  lasted  is  unknown;  but  Beza  and 
Colladon  speak  of  a  perilous  visit  to  Paris,^  which  may 
most  probably  be  placed  between  this  imprisonment 
and  the  outbreak  of  persecution  consequent  upon  the 
posting  of  Antoine  Marcourt's  Placards  against  the 
mass  in  the  October  following.  According  to  the  early 
biographers  just  cited,  the  most  important  incident  of 
this  brief  and  carefully  guarded  sojourn  was  an  at- 
tempted conference  with  Servetus,  at  a  house  in  the 
Rue  Saint-Antoine,  which  failed  by  reason  of  the  neglect 
or  inability  of  the  radical  Spanish  theologian  to  keep 
his  appointment.  At  Paris  Calvin  not  improbably 
found  a  lodging  on  the  Rue  Saint-Martin  in  the  home 
of  that  earnest  Protestant  merchant,  Estienne  de  la 
Forge,  who  was  to  give  his  life  for  his  faith  in  the  Feb- 
ruary following  Calvin's  visit;  and  under  la  Forge's 
roof  he  may  have  been  a  witness  to  that  discussion  with 
a  member  of  the  sect  of  "Libertins"  of  which  he  gave 
an  account  in  his  attack  upon  that  party  of  extreme 
radicals  published  in  1545.^     Of  la  Forge,  whom  Calvin 


^  Doumergue,  i.  432. 

2  Opera,  xxi.  57,  123. 

3  Contre  la  secte  phantastique  des  Libertins,  Opera,  vii.  185. 


I20  John  Calvin  [1533- 

knew  well,  the  future  reformer  was  accustomed  to  speak 
in  high  praise  as  a  man  of  character,  sincerity,  and 

piety.^ 

If  it  is  at  least  probable  that  Calvin's  visit  to  Paris, 
which  has  just  been  described,  was  on  his  way  south- 
ward   from    Noyon    toward    the    friendly    shelter   of 
Angouleme    immediately  after    his  final   release  from 
imprisonment,  no  such  comparative  plausibility  of  con- 
jecture appHes  to  the  course  of  his  movements  during 
the  next  few  months.     He  probably  returned,  at  some 
time  in  this  period,  to  Angouleme,  for  when  he  leaves 
France  it  is  in  company  with  Louis  du  Tillet;  he  was 
certainly  at    Orleans,  for    he    dates    from    there   the 
first  Preface  to  his  Psycho pannychia;  and  Florimond 
de  Rgemond  gives  an  account  of  activity  at  Poitiers 
that  must  have  some  basis  in  fact  beneath  it.     As  to 
the  relations  of  these  several  sojourns  one  to  another, 
or  their  length,  there  is  no  adequate  means  of  forming 
a  conclusion;   and   the   stay  at  Orleans  may  perhaps, 
though   less   probably,    have   occurred   before,    rather 
than  after,  Calvin's  imprisonment  at  Noyon  and  visit 
to  Paris.     Of  these  three  brief  haks  before  leaving  his 
native  land,  that  at  Poitiers  was  significant  as  mark- 
ing a   new  stage  in    Calvin's   relations  to  Protestant 
worship,   while   that   at   Orleans  reveals   a  new  con- 
sciousness of  his  mission  as  a  defender  of  Evangelical 
doctrine. 

Florimond  de  Raemond,  writing  indeed  at  a  distance 
in  point  of  time  which  causes  his  testimony  to  be 
received  only  with  much  uncertainty  as  to  its  value  in 


I  Colladon,  Opera,  xxi.  56. 


1535]  Concealment  and  Exile  121 

detail,  represents  '  Calvin  as  entering,  largely  at  first 
through  the  gateway  of  a  common  interest  in  letters, 
into  more  or  less  intimate  friendship,  at  Poitiers,  that 
religious  city,  with  a  little  group  of  learned  men  of 
high  station, — Francois  Fouquet,  prior  of  Trois  Mou- 
tiers,  with  whom  he  lodged,  Charles  le  Sage,  Professor 
of  Law,  Antoine  de  la  Duguie,  afterward  prominent  in 
the  Faculty  of  Law;  Albert  Babinot,  Lecturer  at  the 
University,  Philippe  Veron  and  Jean  Vernou,  all  three 
to  be  prominent  teachers  of  the  Reformed  faith,  and 
the  last  named  to  give  his  life  in  martyrdom;  Jean 
Boisseau,  sieur  de  la  Borderie,  and  even  the  Heutenant- 
general,  Francois  Doyneau,  seigneur  de  Sainte-Soline. 
With  them  Calvin  is  said  to  have  held  long  conversa- 
tions on  religious  as  well  as  scholarly  themes,  and  over 
a  number  of  them  he  acquired  much  influence.  The 
representation  given  by  Florimond  de  Raemond  cer- 
tainly has  much  verisimihtude  to  what  we  know  of 
Calvin  otherwise  at  this  period.  Not  by  public  preach- 
ing, but  by  private  intercourse  with  the  friends  that 
his  high  scholarship,  agreeable  manners,  and  spiritual 
earnestness  readily  secured  did  he  now  try  to  advance 
the  reform  which  had  mastered  him.  But,  if  the  same 
historian  is  to  be  trusted,  Calvin  now  took  a  step  in 
advance  of  any  progress  he  had  thus  far  made  in  the 
direction  of  Protestant  worship.  With  some  of  these 
friends,  in  the  shelter  of  a  cave  outside  the  city,  he  ob- 
served the  Lord's  Supper.  It  was  Florimond's  opinion 
that  the  simple,  primitive  rite  practised  by  the  early 
Protestants  of  Poitiers,  which  he  describes,  had  been 


^  Naissance,  etc.,  pp.  891-91 1;    Doumergue,  i.  458-464,  580-583. 


122  John    Calvin  [1533- 

taught  them  by  Calvin.  In  its  observance  the  leader 
read  a  passage  from  the  Gospels  describing  the  institu- 
tion of  the  Sacrament,  the  Roman  mass  was  then  de- 
nounced, and  those  present  were  invited  to  the  table 
with  the  words,  "  Brethren,  let  us  eat  the  Lord's  bread 
in  memory  of  His  death  and  passion."  Breaking  the 
bread,  the  leader  then  gave  a  fragment  to  each  of  those 
seated  with  him,  and  all  ate  in  silence ;  and  in  the  same 
way  the  wine  was  received.  Then,  after  a  prayer  of 
thanksgiving  by  the  leader,  all  repeated  the  Lord's 
Prayer  and  the  Apostles'  Creed  in  Latin,  and  with  that 
the  simple  service  closed.^  In  this  fashion,  it  may  be 
believed,  Calvin  ministered  to  the  little  company; 
and  he  justified  his  rejection  of  the  Roman  worship 
by  an  appeal  to  the  Scriptures.  To  Jean  Boisseau, 
sieur  de  la  Borderie,  who  lived  till  1591,  Florimond  de 
Raemond  attributed  the  narrative,  which  he  may  not 
improbably  have  heard  from  Boisseau  himself,  that 
Calvin,  in  a  debate  on  the  mass  held  with  Charles  le 
Sage  during  this  stay  at  Poitiers,  pointed  to  the  Bible 
before  him  with  the  exclamation:  "^ 

There  is  my  mass,  and  throwing  his  cap  on  the  table,  lift- 
ing his  eyes  toward  heaven,  he  cried :  Lord,  if  on  the  day  of 
judgment  Thou  rebukest  me  because  I  have  not  been  at 
mass  and  have  forsaken  it,  I  shall  justly  say:  Lord,  Thou 
hast  not  commanded  it;  here  is  Thy  law,  here  is  the  Script- 
ure which  is  the  rule  that  Thou  hast  given  me,  in  which  I 
could  not  find  any  other  sacrifice  than  that  which  was  offered 
on  the  altar  of  the  cross. 


I  Naissance,  p.  911;   Doumergue,  i.  460,  525. 
3  Naissance,  p.  906;   Doumergue,  i.  460. 


1535]  Concealment  and  Exile  123 

Certainly  the  story  sounds  very  like  a  probable  in- 
cident in  the  history  of  that  Calvin  whose  religious  de- 
velopment has  thus  far  been  followed.  It  speaks  the 
same  confidence  that  the  Scriptures  are  the  direct  voice 
of  God,  and  that  they  are  the  only  law  fully  and  im- 
plicitly to  be  obeyed,  which  had  been  so  large  factors 
in  Calvin's  conversion.  But,  whether  Florimond  de 
Raemond  is  correct  in  these  details  or  not,  it  is  fair  to 
conclude  from  his  account  that  Calvm  began  the  exer- 
cise of  Protestant  ministerial  functions  soon  after  the 
resignation  of  his  benefices,  though  only  in  the  com- 
paratively secure  company  of  his  friends.  Calvin  had 
never  been  ordained  in  the  Roman  Church;  he  was 
never  to  be  set  apart  for  the  ministry  by  the  imposition 
of  Protestant  hands.  He  regarded  his  pastoral  labours 
as  a  task  to  which  he  was  called  of  God, — a  call  wit- 
nessed by  his  own  clear  consciousness  of  the  divine 
guidance  in  appointing  him  his  course  in  Hfe.^  His 
entrance  on  the  pastorate  was  therefore  gradual;  but 
its  clear  manifestation  may,  with  no  little  probability, 
be  connected  with  his  stay  at  Poitiers. 

The  chief  significance  of  Calvin's  stay  at  Orleans  is 
to  be  seen  in  the  completion  there  of  his  first  distinctly 
theological  treatise,  the  Psycho pannychia.  That  Cal- 
vin's sojourn  in  Orleans  was  long  enough  to  allow  time 
for  the  composition  of  the  whole  tract  ^  it  is  not  necessary 
to  suppose;  but  certainly  a  brief  Preface  to  the  little 
work  was  written  and  dated  there.^    The  treatise,  which 


1  The  matter  forms  a  chief  part  of  his  correspondence  with  du  Tillet 
in  1538,  Opera,  xb.  241,  269,  290;   see  also  Doumergue,  ii.  407-409. 

2  Doumergue,  i.  466,  so  holds. 

3  Opera,  v.  170,  171. 


124 


John  Calvin  [1533- 


was  not  printed  till  1542,  and  then  apparently  in  a 
revised  form,  is  a  refutation,  by  arguments  drawn 
almost  entirely  from  a  careful  examination  of  a  great 
number  of  Biblical  passages,  of  the  opinion  that  the 
soul  "sleeps  without  memory,  without  intelligence, 
without  sensation,  from  death  till  the  day  of  judgment, 
when  it  will  awake  from  its  slumber."  The  year  in 
which  Calvin  wrote  was  one  of  widespread  dread,  in 
more  conservative  circles,  of  the  rapidly  growing  Ana- 
baptist movement  which  was  just  coming  to  its  most 
fanatical  manifestation  in  the  establishment  of  what 
was  proclaimed  to  be  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth  at 
Miinster.  The  view  which  he  combated  was  one  to 
be  met  with  among  the  Anabaptists,  though  it  had 
neither  the  prominence  among  them,  the  significance 
in  itself,  nor  the  large  number  of  adherents  that  he 
ascribes  to  it.  It  is  difficult  to  see  why  Calvin  should 
have  selected  this  relatively  insignificant  fragment  of 
Anabaptist  speculation  for  refutation  unless  it  had 
been  more  than  ordinarily  discussed  in  the  Uttle  group  of 
friends  among  whom  he  was  in  some  sense  the  leader. 
But,  though  the  treatise  belongs  distinctly  to  the  minor 
writings  of  Calvin,  its  original  Preface,  preserved  ap- 
parently in  unchanged  fonn,  is  of  value  as  revealing 
something  of  his  mind  just  before  leaving  France, 
Calvin  feels  that  he  is  called  to  be  a  teacher  of  Christian 
doctrine.  ''If  in  such  need  I  am  silent  or  dissimulate," 
he  says,  **I  do  not  see  why  I  should  not  be  called  a 
betrayer  of  the  truth."  He  must  speak  in  its  defence. 
It  may  be  charged,  however,  that  by  so  doing  he  fosters 
schism  in  the  Church  and  offends  charity;   but  ''it 


1535]  Concealment  and  Exile  125 

may  be  answered,  that  we  recognise  no  unity,  save  in 
Christ;  no  charity,  save  that  of  which  He  is  the  bond; 
therefore  the  prime  thing  in  maintaining  charity  is 
that  the  faith  should  remain  inviolate  and  unchanged 
among  us."  The  emphasis  on  purity  of  doctrine  is 
characteristic  of  the  reformers  generally.  Luther  had 
set  a  similar  importance  upon  it  in  his  discussions  with 
Zwingli.  Nor  is  the  feeling  that  by  maintaining  God's 
truth,  as  he  saw  it,  he  was  purifying  rather  than  di- 
viding the  Church,  anything  peculiar  to  Calvin.  But  it 
is  evident  that  in  every  way  the  year  1534  was  one  of 
growth  in  Calvin's  religious  experience  and  in  recog- 
nition of  what  he  believed  to  be  a  divine  call  to  a  leader- 
ship which  we  may  give  him  credence  was  in  many 
ways  repugnant  to  his  shy  and  scholarly  nature. 

As  the  year  1534  drew  toward  a  close,  however, 
France  became  increasingly  a  difficult  region  of  sojourn 
for  a  Protestant.  The  rash  and  violent  Placards  against 
the  mass,  prepared  by  Antoine  Marcourt,  and  posted 
on  the  night  of  October  17th  or  i8th,  aroused  a  strenu- 
ous, though  not  long  continued,  poUcy  of  repression. 
Calvin  had  been  careful  in  the  public  manifestation  of 
his  opinion;  he  was  not  a  man  to  court  needless  risks; 
but  he  had  already  suffered  practical  banishment  from 
Paris,  and  imprisonment  at  Noyon.  His  views  were 
well  known  to  many  at  Angouleme,  Poitiers,  and  Or- 
leans. His  friend  Louis  du  Tillet  felt  no  more  safe 
than  he.  The  situation  counselled  flight  from  the 
kingdom  if  his  work  was  to  be  continued  or  his  life 
preserved.  And,  therefore,  in  company  with  du  Tillet, 
aided  by  two  servants,  and  at  least  two  horses, — largely 


126  John  Calvin  [1533-1535] 

it  is  probable  at  du  Tilfet's  expense, — Calvin  made  his 
way  through  Lorraine  to  Strassburg  and  thence  to  Basel, 
where  he  arrived  about  the  beginning  of  1535,  having 
experienced  no  more  misadventure  on  the  road  than 
the  theft  of  most  of  the  money  of  the  party  and  of  one 
of  the  horses  near  Metz  by  an  unfaithful  servant.^ 
Calvin's  friend  Cop  had  found  a  refuge  in  the  same 
hospitable  city  just  about  a  year  earlier;  and  his  pres- 
ence there  may  have  been  a  main  reason  in  inducing 
Calvin  to  make  it  his  home. 


^  Beza  and  CoUadon,  Opera,  xxi.  57,  124.     Calvin  was  somewhat 
aided  pecuniarily  at  times  by  du  Tillet,  Ibid.^  xb.  27a. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  "institutes,"   ITALY,   AND  ARRIVAL  IN  GENEVA 

AT  Basel  Calvin  found  a  lodging  in  the  home  of 
Catherine  Klein,  who  seems  for  years  to  have 
received  student  guests,  in  the  eastern  suburb  of  the 
city, — that  of  St.  Alban.^  Here,  as  Calvin  himself 
says,  he  "lived  as  it  were  concealed  and  known  to  few 
people,"  ^  hidden  under  the  name  of  Martinus  Lucanius. 
The  city  afforded  not  merely  a  safe  retreat,  but  abun- 
dant opportunities  for  study  and  publication.  The 
reasons  which  had  induced  the  now  aged  Erasmus  to 
make  it  his  home,  availed  to  attract  many  a  less  known 
scholar.  Under  the  leadership  of  Johann  (Ecolam- 
padius,  whose  death  had  occurred  more  than  three 
years  before  Calvin's  arrival,  Basel  had  been  thoroughly 
committed  to  Protestantism;  and  the  work  thus  begun 
was  being  ably  continued  by  the  chief  pastor,  Oswald 
Myconius.  Here,  though  living  very  quietly,  Calvin 
began  some  important  friendships, — with  Myconius, 
with  Pierre  Viret,  to  be  his  associate  in  the  reformation 
of  French-speaking  Switzerland,  and  with  Heinrich 
BulHnger,  Zwingli's  noble  successor  in  the  spiritual 
leadership  of  Zurich.  Calvin  was,  also,  in  friendly 
relations  with  Farel,  though  this  ultimately  momentous 


^  Peter  Ramus,  in  Doumergue,  i.  488. 
2  Opera,  xxxi.  24. 

127 


128  John  Calvin    '  [1535- 

acquaintance  may  have  been  earlier  begun.  He  studied 
Hebrew,  it  is  probable,  under  the  eminent  guidance 
of  Sebastian  Miinster.'  Meanwhile  he  stood  in  cordial 
fellowship  with  Pierre  Robert  Olivetan,  whose  relations 
to  his  conversion  have  given  rise  to  so  much  discussion. 
Olivetan  had  been  labouring,  since  1532,  among  the 
Waldenses  who  found  protection  in  the  valleys  of 
the  southern  Alps,  and  he  had  been  preparing 
with  their  approval  and  at  their  expense  a  transla- 
tion of  the  Bible  into  French.  When  its  printing  was 
completed  at  Neuchatel,  in  June,  1535,  it  appeared 
with  two  commendatory  Prefaces  from  Calvin's  pen."" 

Yet  the  chief  event  of  Calvin's  stay  at  Basel  was  the 
completion  and  pubHcation  of  the  first  edition  of  the 
Institutes,  the  preparation  of  which  had  been  begun 
at  Angouleme.  As  it  was  to  be  put  forth  after  consid- 
erable delay  at  the  printer's,  in  its  original  Latin  dress, 
in  March,  1536,  it  was  not  merely  ^  a  handbook  of  the- 
ology which  marked  its  young  author  as  the  ablest  in- 
terpreter of  Christian  doctrine  that  the  Reformation 
age  had  produced,  but  it  was  prefaced  by  a  bold  yet 
dignified  and  respectful  Letter  addressed  to  King 
Francis  which  at  once  placed  Calvin  at  the  head  of 
French  reformers  and  revealed  him  in  the  highest  de- 
gree as  a  man  of  leadership.  French  Protestantism  had 
had  its  mystics,  its  fanatics,  its  compromisers,  and  its 


I  Doumergue,  i.  488,  489,  505;  Baumgartner,  Calvhi  hebraisant, 
p.  20. 

^  Opera  ix.  787;   Herminjard,  ii.  451-454;   iii.  294,  348. 

3  The  circumstances  of  its  publication,  etc.,  are  best  discussed  by 
Doumergue,  i.  589-595;    see  also  Opera,  iii.  vii-xlvii. 


[S36J  The  '*  Institutes 


129 


martyrs,  but  it  had  been  lacking  in  men  who  could 
speak  soberly,  convincingly,  and  boldly  in  its  name. 
In  Calvin,  such  a  leader  made  himself  heard  through 
the  Letter  to  the  King.  That  letter  bore  date  of  Au- 
gust 23,  1535,  and,  as  it  is  evident  that  its  composition 
was  subsequent  to  the  practical  completion  of  the  doc- 
trinal treatise  to  which  it  was  prefixed,  it  is  plain  that 
the  manuscript  of  Calvin's  notable  volume  was  essen- 
tially finished  when  he  was  not  yet  two  months  entered 
on  his  twenty-seventh  year. 

To  judge  from  his  own  statements,  Calvin  would 
have  been  content  to  have  laboured  peacefully  at  Basel 
on  the  production  of  the  Institutes   longer   than  was 
to  be  the  case,  and  to  have  issued  them  at  last  as  a 
practical,  dispassionate  treatise  setting  forth  the  Christ- 
ian system  as  he  saw  it  revealed  in  the  Scriptures.  , 
The  purpose  of  the  Institutes  was  expository.     Calvin  '\ 
was,  above  all  else,  in  his  own  view,  an  expounder  of  V 
the  Word  of  God.     Writing   in    1541,  he  said  of   his  ) 
treatise:  ^ — 

Although  the  Holy  Scriptures  contain  a  perfect  doctrine, 
to  which  nothing  can  be  added,  .  .  .  still  every  person,  not 
intimately  acquainted  with  them,  stands  in  need  of  some 
guidance  and  direction  as  to  what  he  ought  to  look  for  in 
them.  .  .  .  This  cannot  be  better  done  in  writing  than  by 
treating  in  succession  of  the  principal  matters  which  are 
comprised  in  Christian  Philosophy.  For  he  who  under- 
stands these  will  be  prepared  to  make  more  progress  in  the 
school  of  God  in  one  day  than  any  other  person  in  three 


^  Preface  to  the  French  ed.,  Beveridge's  translation. 
9 


I30 


John   Calvin  [1535- 


months.  .  .  .  With  this  view  I  have  composed  the  present 
book. 

As  it  came  forth,  it  was  not  merely  a  calm  doctrinal 
exposition,  but,  thanks  to  the  Letter  prefixed,  a  noble, 
dignified,  yet  none  the  less  passionate,  defence  of  a 
persecuted  cause.  The  desire  to  defend  that  cause 
and  its  supporters  by  the  Letter  determined  the  author 
to  issue  his  volume  when  he  did  without  waiting  for 
its  further  elaboration.  He  must  vindicate  the  charac- 
ter and  faith  of  his  associates.  Once  more,  as  it  seemed 
to  Calvin,  the  providence  of  God  had  thrust  him  into 
a  publicity  which  he  could  not  avoid  and  still  be  faith- 
ful to  his  duty. 

The  severe  repression  with  which  the  King  followed 
the  posting  of  the  Placards  was  viewed  with  disfavour 
by  the  Protestants  of  Germany,  whose  goodwill  Francis 
wished  to  retain  as  possible  alKes  in  his  rivalries  with 
Charles  V.  To  justify  his  persecution  of  French  Prot- 
estants in  the  eyes  of  their  German  fellow-believers, 
Francis  issued  a  public  letter  on  February  i,  1535,  ad- 
dressed to  the  estates  of  the  Empire,^  in  which  he 
charged  the  Protestants  of  France  with  anarchistic 
aims  designing  an  "overthrow  of  all  things.''  Any 
government  must  resist  such  a  ''contagious  plague  that 
looked  toward  the  foulest  sedition."  The  whole  tone 
of  the  royal  argument  impHed  that  there  was  a  vast 
gulf  between  the  sober,  orderly  German  Protestants 
and  the  rabid  revolutionists  of  France.  Calvin  must 
have  had  rise  before  his  imagination,  as  he  reflected 


'  Text  in  Herminjard,  iii.  250-254. 


1536]  The  "  Institutes 


131 


on  this  presentation,  the  martyred  figure  of  his  Pari- 
sian friend,  that  generous,  peaceful,  honourable  mer- 
chant, Estienne  de  la  Forge,  who  had  suffered  sixteen 
days  after  the  date  of  the  King's  letter.  He  could  not 
leave  such  calumnies  unanswered.  Writing  twenty- 
two  years  after  the  event,  he  thus  described  the  publi- 
cation of  the  Institutes:''  — 

Leaving  my  native  country,  I  removed  to  Germany,  plan- 
ning that,  concealed  in  some  obscure  corner,  I  might  enjoy 
long  denied  peace.  But  while  I  was  in  retirement  at  Basel 
evil  and  lying  pamphlets  were  spread  abroad  to  suppress 
the  indignation  that  the  fires  in  which  many  pious  men  had 
been  burned  in  France  excited  here  and  there  among  the 
Germans,  to  the  effect  that  those  so  cruelly  treated  were  no 
other  than  Anabaptists  and  turbulent  men  who  would  over- 
turn by  their  perverse  insanities  not  religion  only,  but  all 
political  order.  Seeing  this  done  by  the  tricksters  of  the 
Court,  I  felt  that  my  silence  would  be  treachery  and  that 
I  should  oppose  with  all  my  might  not  only  lest  the  unde- 
served shedding  of  the  innocent  blood  of  holy  martyrs 
should  be  concealed  by  false  report,  but  also  lest  they  should 
go  on  in  future  to  whatever  slaughter  they  pleased  without 
arousing  the  pity  of  any.  These  were  my  reasons  for  pub- 
lishing the  Institutes:  first,  that  I  might  vindicate  from  un- 
just affront  my  brethren  whose  death  was  precious  in  the 
sight  of  the  Lord;  and,  next,  that  some  sorrow  and  anxiety 
should  move  foreign  peoples,  since  the  same  sufferings 
threatened  many.  Neither  was  it  that  thick  and  elaborate 
work  it  now  is,  but  only  a  little  hand-book  that  then  ap- 
peared, nor  had  it  any  other  aim  than  to  witness  to  the 


^  Preface  to  Psalms,  Opera,  xxxi.  23. 


132  John  Calvin  [1535- 

faith  of  those  whom  I  saw  evilly  reviled  by  impious  and 
faithless  flatterers. 

It  was,  indeed,  as  Calvin  said,  relatively  a  small  vol- 
ume as  originally  issued.  Yet  it  numbered  five  hun- 
dred and  nineteen  pages.  Their  dimensions  being 
however,  only  six  and  a  quarter  by  four  inches,  it  could 
be  readily  carried  in  a  fair-sized  pocket.  In  typo- 
graphy, it  was  a  credit  to  the  printers,  Thomas  Platter 
and  Balthasar  Lasius,  and  to  the  publisher,  Johann 
Oporin,  who  stood  behind  them;  and  its  sale  was  con- 
siderable, for  in  March,  1537,  a  year  after  its  publica- 
tion, Oporin  could  report  to  Calvin  that  so  much  was 
it  in  demand  that  no  copies  remained  at  Basel,  and  not 
more  than  fifty  at  Frankfort,  whither  a  supply  had 
been  sent  for  sale  at  the  great  fair.  A  new^  edition  was 
being  eagerly  sought.^ 

The  letter  to  King  Francis  is  one  of  the  few-  master- 
pieces of  apologetic  literature.  Courteously  and  respect- 
fully, yet  as  one  aware  of  his  legal  rights  as  a  subject, 
and  conscious  that  his  sovereign  has  duties  as  a 
ruler  which  have  not  been  fulfilled,  Calvin  argues  the 
case  for  himself  and  his  Protestant  fellow-believers.  It 
is  no  cringing  seeker  for  toleration  that  here  speaks,  nor 
is  it  a  fanatic  uttering  a  tirade  against  persecutors;  but 
the  voice  is  of  one  convinced  of  the  justice  of  his  cause 
and  skilled  to  reply  to  criticisms  of  it  with  carefully 
trained  and  lawyer-like  acuteness  and  cogency  of  state- 
ment.    It  is  as  convincing  as  it  is  brilHant. 

The  Protestants,  who  have  been  so  cruelly  slandered, 


*  Herminjard,  iv.  208. 


[536]  The  **  Institutes  " 


"^33 


Calvin  tells  the  King,  are  being  condemned  on  mere 
rumour.  However  humble  their  persons,  justice  de- 
mands that  the  sovereign  examine  into  their  cause  the 
more  urgently  because  it  involves  ' — 

such  mighty  interests  as  these:  how  the  glory  of  God  is 
to  be  maintained  on  earth  inviolate;  how  the  truth  of  God 
is  to  preserve  its  dignity;  how  the  kingdom  of  Christ  is  to 
continue  amongst  us  compact  and  secure.  The  cause  is 
worthy  of  your  ear,  worthy  of  your  investigation,  worthy 
of  your  judgment-seat.  .  .  .  Take  but  a  cursory  view,  most 
valiant  King,  of  all  the  parts  of  our  cause,  and  count  us  of 
all  wicked  men  the  most  iniquitous,  if  you  do  not  discover 
plainly  that  ''to  this  end  we  labour  and  suffer  reproach,  be- 
cause we  put  our  hope  in  the  living  God;"  because  we  be- 
lieve it  to  be  "life  eternal"  to  "know  the  only  true  God  and 
Jesus  Christ"  whom  He  has  sent.  For  this  hope  some  of 
us  are  in  bonds,  some  beaten  with  rods,  some  made  a  gazing- 
stock,  some  proscribed,  some  most  cruelly  tortured,  some 
obliged  to  flee;  we  are  all  pressed  with  poverty,  loaded  with 
dire  execrations,  lacerated  with  abuse,  and  treated  with  the 
greatest  indignity.  Look  now  at  our  adversaries.  .  .  .  The 
true  religion  which  is  handed  down  in  the  Scriptures,  and 
which  ought  to  have  stood  unchanged  among  all  men,  they 
readily  permit  both  themselves  and  others  to  be  ignorant  of, 
to  neglect  and  despise;  and  they  deem  it  of  little  moment 
what  each  man  may  hold  concerning  God  and  Christ,  or 
may  not  hold,  provided  he  submits  his  opinion  with  implicit 
faith  to  the  judgment  of  the  Church.  .  .  .  Nevertheless,  they 
cease  not  to  assail  our  doctrine,  and  to  accuse  and  defame 
it  in  what  terms  they  may,  in  order  to  render  it  either  hated 


I  Opera,  i.  ii,  13,  14,  Beveridge's  translation  slightly  amended. 


134 


John  Calvin  [1535- 


or  suspected.  They  call  It  new,  and  of  recent  birth;  they 
carp  at  it  as  doubtful  and  uncertain ;  they  ask  by  what  mir- 
acles it  has  been  confirmed;  they  query  if  it  be  fair  to  re- 
ceive it  against  the  consent  of  so  many  holy  fathers  and  the 
most  ancient  custom;  they  urge  us  to  confess  either  that  it 
is  schismatical  in  giving  battle  to  the  Church,  or  that  the 
Church  must  have  been  almost  dead  during  the  many  cen- 
turies in  which  nothing  of  the  kind  was  heard.  Lastly,  they 
say  there  is  little  need  of  argument,  for  its  quality  may  be 
known  by  its  fruits,  namely,  the  large  number  of  sects,  the 
many  seditious  disturbances,  and  the  great  licentiousness 
which  it  has  produced. 

Having  stated  his  opponents'  criticisms,  Calvin  pro- 
ceeds, like  an  able  attorney,  to  refute  them  in  order. 
The  doctrine  he  defends  is  not  new,  save  to  his  enemies; 
it  is  the  very  Word  of  God.  It  is  not  doubtful,  save  to 
those  that  are  ignorant  of  it.  It  needs  no  fresh  miracu- 
lous confirmation,  since  it  is  the  same  Gospel  *'the 
truth  of  which  is  confirmed  by  all  the  miracles  which 
Christ  and  the  Apostles  ever  wrought."  The  Fathers, 
at  least  of  a  purer  age,  though  not  without  much  human 
error,  are  even  more  on  the  side  of  the  reformers  than 
those  who  pretend  to  do  them  special  reverence;  and 
in  numerous  instances,  which  Calvin  cites,  they  have 
opposed  doctrines  or  practices  now  obtaining  in  the 
Roman  communion.  Custom  is  no  fitting  test  of  truth, 
for  "human  affairs  have  scarcely  ever  been  so  happily 
constituted  as  that  the  better  course  pleased  the  greater 
number."  Nor  do  Protestants  hold  the  Church  to 
have  been  dead ; — those  who  seek  reform  have  a  truer 


1536]  The  ''Institutes" 


135 


definition   of  what  the    Church    really  is    than  their 
opponents : '  — 

The  hinges  on  which  our  controversy  turns  are  these: 
first,  in  their  contending  that  the  form  of  the  Church  is  al- 
ways visible  and  apparent;  and,  secondly,  in  their  placing 
that  form  in  the  see  of  the  Church  of  Rome  and  its  hierar- 
chy. We,  on  the  contrary,  maintain  that  the  Church  may 
exist  without  any  apparent  form ;  and  that  the  form  is  not 
ascerta*ined  by  that  external  splendour  which  they  foolishly 
admire,  but  by  a  very  different  mark,  namely,  by  pure 
preaching  of  the  Word  of  God  and  rightful  administration 
of  the  sacraments. 

In  so  defining  the  "notes  of  the  Church,"  Calvin 
stood  on  the  general  Protestant  basis,  expressed,  for  in- 
stance, six  years  before  in  the  Augsburg  Confession. 
To  the  allegation  that  the  new  preaching  brought  dis- 
order, he  repHes:  "The  blame  of  these  evils  is  wrong- 
fully charged  upon  it,  which  ought  to  be  ascribed  to 
the  malice  of  Satan";  and  he  concludes  with  the  ap- 
peal:'— 

Magnanimous  King,  be  not  moved  by  the  absurd  insinu- 
ations with  which  our  adversaries  are  striving  to  frighten 
you  into  the  belief  that  nothing  else  is  wished  and  aimed 
at  by  this  new  gospel  (for  so  they  term  it)  than  opportunity 
for  seditions  and  impunity  for  all  vices.  God  is  not  the 
author  of  division,  but  of  peace;  and  the  Son  of  God,  who 
came  to  destroy  the  works  of  the  devil,  is  not  the  minister 


'  Opera,  i.  20,  21. 
3  Ibid.,  25,  26. 


136  John   Calvin  [153s- 

of  sin.  We  are  undeservedly  charged  with  desires  of  a  kind 
for  which  we  have  never  given  even  the  smallest  suspicion. 
.  .  .  [Your]  good  will,  we  are  confident,  we  should  regain, 
would  you  but  once,  with  calmness  and  composure,  read 
this  our  confession,  which  we  wish  to  serve  with  your  majesty 
instead  of  a  defence.  But  if  the  whispers  of  the  malevolent 
so  possess  your  ears  that  the  accused  are  to  have  no  oppor- 
tunity of  pleading  their  cause;  if  those  vindictive  furies,  with 
your  connivance,  are  always  to  rage  with  bonds,  scourgings, 
tortures,  maimings,  and  burnings,  we,  indeed,  like  sheep 
doomed  to  slaughter,  shall  be  reduced  to  every  extremity; 
yet  so  that,  in  our  patience,  we  will  possess  our  souls,  and 
wait  for  the  strong  hand  of  the  Lord,  which  doubtless  will 
appear  in  time,  and  show  itself  armed,  both  to  rescue  the 
poor  from  affliction,  and  to  take  vengeance  on  the  despisers. 
Most  powerful  and  illustrious  King,  may  the  Lord,  the  King 
of  kings,  establish  your  throne  in  justice  and  your  rulership 
in  equity. 

Calvin  had  spoken  the  word  which  French  Protes- 
tantism needed  to  have  said  in  its  defence;  and  hence- 
forth no  man  could  doubt  his  leadership  in  its  cause. 

The  Institutes  themselves,  to  which  this  Letter  was 
prefixed,  were,  indeed,  far  from  the  perfection  of  logi- 
cal treatment  and  inclusiveness  of  view  which  were  to 
characterise  the  final  form  attained  in  the  edition  of 
1559;  but  they  were  even  now  sufficiently  significant.' 
Calvin's  work  follows  the  ancient  popular  order  of  re- 
ligious instruction  which  had   served    Luther   for   an 


I  Text  in  Opera,  i.  27-252;  for  comparison  with  later  editions  sec 
Ibid.,  li-lviii,  and  also  Kostlin,  "  Calvins  Institutio  nach  Form  und 
Inhalt,"  in  Theologische  Studien  und  Kriiiken,  for  1868,  pp.  7-62, 
410-486. 


1536]  The  ''Institutes"  137 

outline  in  drafting  his  short  Catechism  of  1529,  and  was 
determined  in  its  sequence  by  the  elementary  teachings 
which  every  Christian  child  had  long  been  expected  to 
learn  by  heart.  In  the  first  four  of  his  six  chapters  he 
therefore  treats  of  the  Law,  as  set  forth  in  the  Ten 
Commandments;  Faith,  as  embodied  in  the  Apostles' 
Creed;  Prayer,  as  illustrated  in  that  of  our  Lord;  and 
the  Sacraments  of  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper.  To 
these  he  joins  two  further  chapters,  one  treating  of  the 
"False  Sacraments"  which  Roman  teaching  had  added 
to  the  primal  two,  and  the  other  of  ''Christian  Liberty, 
Ecclesiastical  Power,  and  Civil  Administration."  This 
order  of  discussion  was  not  only  historically  famiHar, 
but  it  gave  to  Calvin's  legally  trained  mind  the  advan- 
tage of  basing  much  of  his  exposition  on  definite  docu- 
ments generally  beheved  to  be  of  absolute  authority. 
Yet  Calvin's  treatment  is  far  from  being  confined  to 
an  exposition  of  these  documents  alone.  Its  range  is 
broad,  and  it  deserves  the  description  which  the  pub- 
lishers, more  probably  than  Calvin,  placed  on  the  title- 
page  of  the  first  edition  of  the  Institutes, — that  of 
"containing  well-nigh  the  whole  sum  of  piety." 
Between  the  first  three  chapters  and  their  successors  a 
certain  difference  of  style  and  atmosphere  may  also  be 
noted.  The  earlier  portion  is  less  polemic,  more  simple 
and  calm;  while  the  closing  chapters  are  more  viva- 
cious and  controversial  in  tone  and  reflect  more  strongly 
the  heat  of  the  quarrel  with  the  ancient  Church.  The 
supposition  is  natural  that  they  were  written  after  Cal- 
vin's rising  indignation  at  the  misrepresentation  of  his 
fellow-believers  had  led  him  to  modify  his  earlier  plan 


138  John  Calvin  [1535- 

of  a  peacefully  wrought-out  work  of  Christian  instruc- 
tion. Yet  the  whole  volume  is  remarkably  well-poised 
and  exhibits  everywhere  great  self-control  on  the  part 
of  its  author.  Its  denunciatory  epithets  are  much 
fewer  than  in  its  later  editions.  As  compared  with 
them,  however,  it  shows  more  of  a  departure  from  the 
classics-loving  Calvin  who  had  commented  on  Seneca. 
Though  Ambrose,  Augustine,  and  Plato  are  quoted, 
Calvin  makes  far  less  use  of  the  Fathers  and  the  great 
writers  of  Greece  and  Rome  than  in  the  subsequent 
editions  of  the  Institutes. 

In  its  doctrinal  outlook,  the  first  edition  of  the  In- 
stitutes might  well  appear  a  product  of  the  German 
Reformation,  especially  as  that  movement  had  devel- 
oped in  the  Rhine  Valley.  Most  of  the  pecuHarities 
of  Calvinism  are  discoverable,  but  they  are  not  so  prom- 
inent or  so  sharply  put  as  in  later  editions.  Yet  there 
is  already  in  clear  evidence  that  profound  conscious- 
ness of  the  reality  and  authority  of  God  which  marks 
all  Calvin's  thought.  Next  in  emphasis  is  its  doctrine 
of  salvation  through  reconciliation  by  faith  in  Christ. 
''All  the  sum  of  the  Gospel  is  contained  in  these  two 
heads:  repentance  and  remission  of  sins."  ^  Election 
is  briefly  set  forth  as  a  basis  of  confidence  of  salvation 
and  as  determining  membership  in  the  invisible  Church; 
but  it  is  not  given  quite  the  central  position  that  seems 
logically  to  belong  to  the  doctrine,  and  reprobation  is 
simply  mentioned.  From  election,  the  perseverance  of 
those  thus  chosen  is  clearly  deduced. 

The  treatise  begins,  like  the  later  editions  of  the 

'  Opera,  i.  149. 


1536]  The  ''Institutes"  139 

Institutes,  with  the  declaration  that  religious  truth  is  al- 
most entirely  comprehended  in  the  knowledge  of  God 
and  of  ourselves, — of  God,  that  He  is  inhnite  wisdom 
and  goodness,  and  the  source  of  all  good  everywhere, 
for  whose  glory  all  things  are  made,  a  just  Judge  and 
yet  merciful  to  those  that  seek  Him, — of  ourselves,  that, 
since  the  loss  of  that  original  perfection  in  which  Adam 
was  created,  the  whole  human  race  has  been  totally 
corrupt  and  justly  exposed  to  the  wrath  of  God.  Hence 
any  effort  to  merit  righteousness  is  unavailing;  but 
God  forgives  sins  and  gives  a  new  heart  to  the  humbly 
penitent,  through  and  for  the  sake  of  Christ,  if  they 
accept  His  gifts  with  "certain  faith."  The  Law,  there- 
fore, is  not  our  rule  of  salvation,  but  a  ''looking-glass" 
which  shows  us  our  condition.  Calvin  then  explains  the 
several  commandments  and  concludes  that  the  Law  has 
three  main  uses, — it  shows  what  God  justly  requires  of 
us,  it  admonishes  those  whom  nothing  but  fear  of  pun- 
ishment will  move,  and  it  is  "an  exhortation  to  the 
faithful,"  furnishing  them  a  rule  for  learning  what  is 
"the  will  of  God"  to  which  it  is  their  purpose  to  con- 
form. This  third  use  of  the  Law  as  a  discipline  for 
Christian  believers  is  a  mark  of  Calvinism  as  distin- 
guished from  Lutheran  interpretations.  Though  hav- 
ing no  confidence  in  good  works  as  of  a  saving  value, 
the  Christian  will  look  for  them  in  his  life  as  "the  fruit 
of  the  Spirit  of  God,"  done  by  God  through  him,  and 
the  evidence  that  he  has  "passed  from  the  kingdom  of 
sin  to  the  kingdom  of  righteousness."  His  assurance 
of  salvation  is  based  on  the  divine  election  thus 
witnessed. 


I40 


John  Calvin  [1535. 


In  his  second  chapter,  ''On  Faith,"  Calvin  distin- 
guishes between  an  intellectual  recognition  of  God's 
existence  and  of  the  historic  truth  of  the  Scripture  nar- 
rative,— a  possession  ''unworthy  the  name  of  faith," — 
and  a  belief  which  places  "all  hope  and  confidence  in 
one  God  and  Christ,"  "doubting  nothing  of  the  good- 
will of  God  towards  us."  The  basis  without  which 
this  faith  cannot  be  sustained  is  declared  to  be  the 
Scriptures.  Calvin  then  discusses  the  Trinity,  and  pro- 
ceeds to  the  explanation  of  the  Apostles'  Creed.  The 
"holy  catholic  Church"  he  defines  as  "the  whole  num- 
ber of  the  elect";  but,  since  this  invisible  Church  can- 
not be  exactly  perceived  by  us,  we  may  in  the  judgment 
of  charity  hold  to  be  of  it  "all  who  by  confession  of 
faith,  example  of  life,  and  participation  in  the  sacra- 
ments confess  the  same  God  and  Christ  as  we." 

Since  men  have  nothing  of  good  in  themselves,  they 
must  look  to  God  for  all  blessings,  and  hence  Calvin 
devotes  his  third  chapter  to  Prayer.  Its  first  condi- 
tion is  humility,  its  next  "certain  faith."  The  merit 
is  not  in  the  prayer,  nor  in  the  dignity  of  him  who 
offers  it,  but  in  the  divine  promise,  which  will  be  ful- 
filled to  him  who  prays  in  equal  faith,  as  truly  as  to 
Peter  or  to  Paul.  It  is  to  be  offered  to  God  in  the  name 
of  Christ  only, — not  to  or  through  the  saints;  and  pub- 
lic prayer  should  be  in  a  tongue  understood  by  all  the 
congregation.  Private  prayer  may  be  spoken  or  with- 
out words;  but  true  prayer  has  always  two  elements, — 
petition  and  giving  of  thanks.  Calvin  then  expounds 
the  Lord's  Prayer  as  a  model  of  what  prayer  should 
be. 


1536]  The  ''Institutes"  141 

With  his  fourth  chapter  Calvin  takes  up  the  Sacra- 
ments, which  he  defines  as  "external  signs  by  which 
the  Lord  sets  forth  and  attests  his  goodwill  towards  us 
in  order  to  sustain  the  weakness  of  our  faith."  No 
sacrament  is  without  the  preceding  divine  promise,  to 
which  it  witnesses.  It  is  like  the  seal  to  a  document, 
valueless  in  itself,  but  confirming  that  to  which  it  is 
attached.  Two  sacraments  only  have  been  thus  di- 
vinely instituted, — Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper. 
Baptism  serves  to  strengthen  our  faith  in  God's  remis- 
sion of  our  sins,  and  as  a  confession  of  Him  before  men. 
It  is  to  be  administered  to  infants  as  well  as  to  adults; 
and  in  the  simple  way  the  Scriptures  indicate.  Whether 
by  immersion  or  sprinkling  may  well  be  left  to  the 
usages  of  different  countries.  Like  Baptism,  the  Lord's 
Supper  is  "an  exercise  of  faith,  given  to  maintain,  ex- 
cite, and  increase  it."  It  is  the  attestation  and  witness 
of  God's  promise.  It  gives  assurance  that  whatever  is 
Christ's  is  ours,  whatever  is  ours  is  His.  "All  the  energy 
of  the  sacrament  is  in  these  words,  'which  is  given  for 
you.'  "  Having  said  this,  Calvin  brings  to  mind  the 
"horrible  dissensions"  which  had  been  manifested  in 
the  recent  controversies  between  Lutherans  and  Zwin- 
ghans  regarding  the  nature  of  Christ's  presence  in  the 
Supper.  His  own  view,  which  he  argues  with  great 
acuteness,  is  that  "the  sacrament  is  something  spirit- 
ual." It  is  the  very  condition  of  the  existence  of  a 
physical  body  that  it  can  be  in  but  one  place.  Hence, 
in  the  Supper,  Christ  is  "truly  and  efficaciously,"  but 
not  physically,  present;  "not  the  very  substance  of  his 
body  nor  the  real  and  natural  body  of  Christ  is  there 


142 


John  Calvin  [1535- 


given,  but  all  things  which  Christ  bestows  as  benefits 
to  us  by  His  body."  Though  asserting  thus  in  the 
clearest  terms  that  Christ's  presence  in  the  elements  is 
one  of  spiritual  power  only,  Calvin  gives  the  impression 
of  standing  in  closer  sympathy  with  Luther  than  with 
Zwingli  in  his  estimate  of  the  nature  and  worth  of  the 
Supper.  He  then  goes  on  to  reject  the  Roman  concep- 
tion of  the  mass  in  most  energetic  terms,  and  urges  that 
communion  should  be  observed  with  simple  ritual,  and 
at  least  once  a  week, — a  fact  which  should  be  weighed 
by  those  who  criticise  the  Sunday  worship  of  Calvin- 
ism as  too  bare  and  too  purely  intellectual.  If  a  much 
less  frequent  observation  became  the  rule  in  the 
Reformed  Churches,  it  was  not  by  Calvin's  inten- 
tion. 

In  his  fifth  chapter  Calvin  carries  his  warfare  yet 
more  vigorously  agamst  the  Roman  system,  attacking 
with  great  vivacity  of  style  and  keenness  of  argument 
the  claims  of  Confirmation,  Penance,  Extreme  Unction, 
Orders,  or  Marriage  to  be  called  sacraments  at  all. 
As  God  alone  can  create  a  sacrament,  since  He  alone 
can  give  the  promise  of  which  it  is  the  witness,  so  His 
Word  alone  reveals  the  Sacraments  that  He  has  in- 
stituted; and,  tried  by  this  test,  the  five  just  enumerated 
are  found  wanting.  Calvin  discusses  each  at  length, 
treating  naturally  with  especial  fulness  that  of  Penance, 
and  criticising  in  its  connection  auricular  confes- 
sion, satisfaction,  a  treasury  of  good  works,  indulgences, 
and  purgatory.  Treating  of  orders,  Calvin  holds  that 
the  Scripture  "recognises  no  other  minister  of  the 
Church  than  a  preacher  of  the  Word  of  God,  called  to 


1536]  The   *' Institutes"  143 

govern  the  Church,  whom  it  calls  now  a  bishop,  now 
a  presbyter,  and  occasionally  a  pastor."  Orders  are 
simply  this  calUng,  which  should  be  accomplished  with 
the  consent  of  the  Church  to  be  served,  and  the  advice 
of  one  or  two  neighbouring  ministers  as  to  the  fitness 
of  the  candidate.  Whether  this  consent  of  the  Church 
should  be  expressed  by  a  meeting  of  the  whole  congrega- 
tion, or  the  votes  of  a  few  elders,  magistrates,  princes, 
or  a  city  government,  Calvin  leaves  to  be  determined 
by  circumstances.  Imposition  of  hands  may  properly 
be  used  in  setting  the  minister  apart  for  his  work,  but 
is  in  no  sense  a  sacrament. 

Calvin's  concluding  chapter  takes  up  the  theme  of 
Christian  liberty.  It  consists,  he  holds,  in  a  freedom 
which  raises  the  Christian  above  the  "Law"  as  a  test  of 
obedience,  though,  since  we  are  called  to  sanctification, 
the  Law  remains  an  admonishing  and  stimulating  in- 
fluence. From  this  principle  it  follows  that  Christian 
''consciences  submit  to  the  Law  not  as  if  compelled 
by  the  force  of  the  Law,  but  free  from  the  yoke  of  the 
Law  itself,  they  obey  the  will  of  God  voluntarily." 
Hence,  to  the  Christian,  the  Law  is  a  rule  of  life.  A 
third  element  in  Christian  liberty  is  freedom  in  the  use 
of  those  gifts  of  God  which  are  often  called  indifferent 
things.  ''Nor  is  it  anywhere  forbidden  to  laugh,  or 
to  enjoy  food,  or  to  add  new  possessions  to  old  and 
ancestral  property,  or  to  be  delighted  with  musical 
harmonies,  or  to  drink  wine," — a  phrase  which  reveals 
Calvin  as  anything  but  an  ascetic;  but  he  adds, 
"that  is,  indeed,  true;  but  when  the  abundance  of  pos- 
sessions leads  one  to  be  wrapped  up  in  enjoyments 


144 


John  Calvin  [1535- 


and  to  immerse  one's  self  in  them,  to  intoxicate  mind 
and  soul  with  present  pleasures  and  always  to  seek  after 
new  delights, — these  things  are  as  far  as  possible  from 
a  proper  use  of  the  gifts  of  God."  "The  sum  is,  that 
'  We  that  are  strong  ought  to  bear  the  infirmities  of  the 
weak  and  not  to  please  ourselves.'"  For  his  proper 
guidance,  man  is  placed  in  this  world  under  a  double 
government,  spiritual  and  temporal.  That  spiritual 
kingdom  has  only  one  King,  Christ;  and  one  law,  the 
Word  of  the  Gospel.  Its  officers  are  "ministers"'  of 
that  Word,  and  have  no  right  to  add  to  or  take  from 
the  prescriptions  therein  contained.  "The  Church  is 
to  be  heard,  they  say.  Who  denies  it,  since  she  pro- 
claims nothing  save  from  the  Word  of  God  ?  If  they 
demand  anything  more,  they  know  that  the  words  of 
Christ  give  no  support  to  their  demand."  Of  pastors, 
and  all  other  church  officers,  Calvin  declares,  "All  their 
function  is  bounded  by  the  ministry  of  the  Word 
of  God,  all  their  wisdom  by  the  knowledge  of 
that  Word,  all  their  eloquence  by  its  preaching." 
Holding  this  principle,  Calvin  necessarily  finds  no 
authority  in  the  decrees  of  councils  or  in  the  pro- 
mulgations of  church  fathers  and  bishops,  save  as 
they  conform  to  this  one  divine  standard  of  faith  and 
practice. 

Calvin  then  proceeds  to  vindicate  civil  government 
from  the  criticisms  of  it  as  no  fit  employment  for 
Christian  men,  often  directed  against  it  by  the  Ana- 
baptists and  other  radical  reformers  of  his  day.  It  is 
estabhshed  by  divine  authority  "  to  order  our  life  for  the 
society  of  men,  to  conform  our  conduct  to  civil  justice. 


1536]  The  ''Institutes"  145 

to  reconcile  us  one  with  another,  to  nourish  and 
preserve  common  peace  and  tranquillity."  The  duty 
of  the  magistrate  is  not  merely  to  see  that  "public 
peace  be  not  disturbed,  and  each  safely  possess  his 
own,"  but  to  guard  lest  "idolatry,  sacrilege  against 
the  name  of  God,  blasphemies  against  His  truth,  or 
other  public  offences  against  religion  should  break  out 
or  be  spread  among  the  people."  Severe  punishments 
are  often  necessary,  but  clemency  is  the  chief  orna- 
ment of  a  ruler.  The  collection  of  taxes  and  the  wag- 
ing of  just  wars  are  not  forbidden  to  the  Christian 
magistrate,  any  more  than  the  estabhshment  of  such 
laws  as  equity  and  the  teaching  of  God's  Word  coun- 
sel. The  punishments  by  which  laws  are  sanctioned 
may  vary  with  times  and  places,  but  their  purpose  is 
always  the  same.  They  condemn  what  God  condemns. 
To  these  laws  and  magistrates,  even  to  rulers  of  vi- 
cious and  tyrannical  character,  full  obedience  is  due, 
save  where  the  command  contradicts  the  revealed  will 
of  God.  Where  God  has  spoken,  no  other  voice 
deserves  the  slightest  heed. 

Such,  in  the  barest  outline,  is  the  remarkable  hand- 
book of  Christian  belief  with  which  Calvin  accompanied 
his  defence  of  French  Protestantism.  Though  greatly 
to  be  enlarged  and  improved  in  the  later  editions  on 
which  he  was  unweariedly  to  labour  till  within  five 
years  of  the  close  of  his  life,  it  stood  forth,  even  in  this 
early  form,  not  merely  as  by  far  the  most  significant 
treatise  that  the  reformers  of  France  had  yet  produced, 
but  without  a  superior  as  a  clear,  logical,  and  popularly 
apprehensible  presentation  of  those  principles  for  which 


146  John  Calvin  [1535- 

all  Protestantism  contended.  It  was  far  more  than  a 
theoretic  exposition  of  Christian  truth.  Though  in 
form  not  strictly  a  programme  for  action,  it  could  easily 
yield  the  basis  of  a  new  constitution  for  the  Church, 
and  of  a  regulation  of  the  moral  Hfe  of  the  community. 
The  felicity  of  its  style,  the  logical  cogency  of  argument, 
the  precision  of  statement,  which  marked  the  volume, 
were  Calvin's  own.  The  moral  enthusiasm  which 
shines  through  it  was  a  kindhng  force.  As  a  treatment 
of  Christian  doctrine,  it  was  fresh  and  original.  But  it 
was  even  more  a  carefully  wrought-out  exposition  of  the 
Christian  life,  novel  and  inspiring  in  its  clearness  and 
earnestness. 

Such  qualities  do  not  exclude,  however,  a  large 
degree  of  indebtedness  to  those  who  had  thought  before 
him  on  these  themes,  and  especially  to  his  immediate 
predecessors  in  the  leadership  of  the  Reformation. 
'  Calvin's  mind  was  formulative  rather  than  creative. 
Given  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  Reformation, 
he  could  carry  them  to  their  logical  consequences  with 
a  keenness  of  insight  and  a  clearness  of  statement  such 
as  none  of  his  contemporaries  could  equal;  but  it  may 
be  questioned  whether  in  the  development  of  Christian 
doctrine  he  could  have  done  the  path-breaking  work 
accomplished  by  the  first  generation  of  the  re- 
formers. 

Calvin's  indebtedness  to  Luther  was,  of  course,  great. 
It  is  Luther's  doctrines  of  faith  alone  and  of  the  way 
of  salvation  that  the  Institutes  present;  and,  in  spite  of 
divergencies  of  the  highest  significance  from  the  view 
of  Christ's  presence  in  the  Supper  taught  by  the  Saxon 


1536]  The  *' Institutes"  147 

reformer,  it  is  Luther's  conception  of  the  Sacraments, 
as  attestations  of  the  divine  promise  designed  to 
strengthen  our  trust,  that  marks  Calvin's  definition  of 
these  Christian  ordinances.  Calvin's  whole  theological 
work  was  made  possible  only  by  the  antecedent  labours 
of  Luther.  But  in  many  doctrinal  details  it  is  easy  to 
trace  an  indebtedness  not  so  much  to  Luther  directly 
as  to  the  German  Reformation  as  it  fashioned  itself  in 
the  minds  of  the  reformers  of  southwestern  Germany. 
Calvin  had  little  spiritual  kinship  to  ZwingH.  He 
stood  nearer  to  Luther  than  to  the  reformer  of  German- 
speaking  Switzerland.  But  he  owed  much  to  Martin 
Bucer  of  Strassburg.''  Such  a  sympathy  in  interpreta- 
tion of  the  principles  of  the  Reformation  was  natural 
to  a  young  Frenchman  by  reason  of  the  geographical 
proximity  of  the  Rhineland  and  consequent  readiness 
of  intercourse;  but  in  Calvin's  case  it  seems  more  than 
a  general  indebtedness  to  influences  widely  prevalent 
in  the  region  of  which  Strassburg  was  the  centre. 
Views  characteristic  of  Bucer,  and  which  Bucer  had 
put  forth  in  his  Evangelienkommenlar,  the  first  edition 
of  which  had  appeared  in  1527,  Calvin  had  clearly  made 
his  own,  so  that  there  is  reason  to  beUeve  that  Bucer's 
work  had  been  used  in  his  studies  preparatory  to  the 
Institutes.  Some  colour  is  given  by  this  acquaintance 
to  the  claim  that  a  correspondence  had  been  begun  with 
the  Strassburg  reformer  by  Calvin  before  his  flight 


'^  See  R.  Seeberg,  Lchrhuch  der  Dogmengeschichte,  Erlangen,  1898, 
ii.  379-383;  and,  especially,  August  Lang,  Der  Evangelienkomynen- 
iar  Martin  Btdzer's,  Leipzig,  1900,  passim. 


148  John   Calvin  [1535- 

from  France,  though  reasons  have  already  been   ad- 
duced showing  this  opinion  to  be  improbable.^ 

Calvin's  centration  of  his  theology  about  the  two 
conceptions  of  the  universal  agency  of  God  in  salvation 
and  of  the  divine  predestination  was  of  the  essence  of 
Bucer's  thinking;  and  Calvin's  treatment  of  election, 
clearly  apparent  in  the  first  edition  of  the  Institutes^ 
as  the  basis  of  that  confidence  enjoyed  by  those  Hving 
the  Christian  Hfe  which  distinguishes  them  from  non- 
Christians,  was  already  taught  by  Bucer,  with  whom,  as 
with  Calvin  in  the  first  edition  of  the  Institutes,  election 
was  a  doctrine  to  strengthen  practical  Christian  living 
far  more  than  an  abstract  explanation  of  the  divine 
government  of  the  universe.  With  Bucer,  Calvin  de- 
fined faith  as  '^ persuasio,'^ — a  certainty  of  conviction; 
and  as  w^ith  Bucer  the  "glory"  or  ''honour"  of  God 
are  phrases  frequently  employed  to  denote,  for  example, 
the  purpose  "for  which  all  things  in  heaven  and  in 
earth  are  created."  As  with  Bucer,  man  is  powerless 
to  achieve  any  good  thing, — all  of  worth  is  from  God ; 
but  in  Bucer  and  Calvin  alike,  by  a  kind  of  over-riding 
of  logic  by  the  demands  of  an  ardent  practical  piety, 
the  Christian  life  is  looked  upon  as  a  strenuous,  warm- 
hearted, self-denying  effort  to  realise  in  one's  self  the 
blessings  and  the  character  which  the  divine  election 
has  made  ours.^  The  whole  Reformation  age  made 
much  of  election,  as  was  natural  in  an  epoch  char- 
acterised by  a  mighty  revival  of  Augustinianism,  but 
the    pietistic    use   of    the    doctrine   as    the    basis    of 


^  Ante,  p.  65. 

2  Compare  Lang,  op.  cit.,  pp.  194,  195. 


1536]  "The  Institutes" 


149 


confidence  and  the  encouragement  to  struggle  for  high 
attainment  in  the  Christian  Hfe  was  more  markedly  a 
trait  of  Bucer  than  of  any  of  his  contemporaries  among 
the  reformers  of  the  first  generation,  and  was  to  be 
made  by  Calvin  a  prime  characteristic  of  the  churches 
which  felt  his  moulding  touch. 

But  besides  this  indebtedness  to  older  reformers  who 
were  still  living  when  Calvin's  Institutes  were  first 
published,  the  young  thinker  took  much,  consciously 
or  unconsciously,  from  the  later  schoolmen.  Thus  he 
owed  to  Scotus,  doubtless  without  realising  the  obHga- 
tion,  the  thought  of  God  as  almighty  will,  for  motives 
behind  whose  choice  it  is  as  absurd  as  it  is  impious  to 
inquire.  To  Scotus,  also,  was  due  the  conception  that 
the  power  of  God  accompanies,  rather  than  exists  in, 
the  Sacraments.  And  from  the  general  feehng  of 
mediaeval  Latin  Christendom  that  the  Church  is  in- 
dependent of  the  State,  Calvin  probably  derived  the 
conviction  which  was  to  make  his  theory  of  the  relation 
of  the  Church  to  organised  poUtical  society  one  involv- 
ing far  greater  freedom  than  that  of  any  other  of  the 
reformers,  whatever  limitations  that  theory  was  after- 
wards to  exhibit  in  Calvin's  Genevan  practice.  To 
point  out  these  obligations  is,  however,  in  no  way  to 
detract  from  the  merit  of  the  youthful  theologian.  He 
built  his  edifice  of  Christian  thought  with  utmost  skill; 
but,  in  so  doing,  he  did  not  reject  the  plans  on  which 
older  labourers  had  wrought  or  the  materials  which 
their  patient  efforts  had  gathered. 

On  the  publication  of  the  Institutes ,  in  March,  1536, 
or  perhaps  on  the  completion  of    the  revision  of  the 


ISO 


John  Calvin  [1535- 


proofs  in  the  previous  month,'  Calvin  set  out  from  Basel, 
accompanied  by  his  friend  du  Tillet,  for  a  brief  visit  to 
Ferrara,  the  object  of  which  was  to  meet  the  duchess, 
Renee,  wife  of  Ercole  II.  He  travelled  under  the 
disguised  name  of  Charles  d'Espeville,  evidently  remi- 
niscent of  the  territory  from  which  part  of  his  ecclesi- 
astical revenue  at  Noyon  had  been  derived.  The 
occasion  and  circumstances  of  this  journey  to  Italy  are 
obscure  and  have  given  rise  to  a  mass  of  fable  and 
conjecture;  but  a  sufficient  reason  is  to  be  seen  in  the 
existence  of  a  state  of  affairs  at  the  court  of  Ferrara 
which  gave  promise,  for  the  time  being,  that  the  reform 
movement  would  there  find  a  welcome.  To  aid  the 
cause  he  had  at  heart  was  doubtless  Calvin's  purpose 
in  crossing  the  Alps. 

Renee,  who  was  almost  the  same  age  as  Calvin,  was 
the  daughter  of  King  Louis  XII.  of  France,  and  re- 
garded her  mission  in  Italy  as  the  defence  of  French 
interests,  even  at  the  expense  of  long- continued  disputes 
with  her  husband.  Proud  of  her  birth  and  nationality, 
she  had  a  generous  welcome  for  such  Frenchmen  as 
sought  her  aid,  and  was  accustomed  to  reply  to  critics 
of  her  kindliness:  "They  are  .  .  .  of  my  nation,  and  if 
God  had  given  me  a  beard  on  my  chin,  and  I  were  a 
man,  they  would  all  be  my  subjects  ...  if  this  evil 
saUc  law  did  not  bind  me  too  firmly."  =     In  mental 


1  Beza  and  Colladon,  Opera,  xxi.  30,  58,  125.  The  literature 
treating  of  this  journey,  which  is  extensive  and  controversial,  is  well 
considered  by  Doumergue,  ii.  3-94;  see  also  C.  A.  Cornelius,  His- 
torische  Arheiten,  Leipzig,  1899,  pp.  105-123. 

2  Brantome,  (Euvres,  viii.  iii. 


1536]      Italy  and  Arrival  in  Geneva      151 

traits  she  much  resembled  her  cousin,  Marguerite 
d'Angoulcme,  possessing  the  same  love  of  letters,  the 
same  desire  to  aid  those  who  were  advancing  the  cause 
of  learning,  and  similar  religious  opinions,  being  prob- 
ably largely  an  adherent  of  the  newer  views  at  heart 
all  her  life,  as  she  openly  became  after  her  return  to 
France  as  a  widow.  But,  like  Marguerite,  she  remained 
during  her  sojourn  in  Italy  in  outward  conformity  to 
the  Roman  Church,  and  was  claimed  by  either  side  in 
the  struggle.  Like  that  of  Marguerite,  also,  her  court 
was  a  place  of  refuge  for  many  whom  the  persecuting 
policy  of  Francis  I.  compelled  to  fly  from  France;  and 
in  the  spring  of  1536  it  sheltered,  among  others,  the 
Protestant  poet  Clement  Marot,  whose  name  had  been 
seventh  on  the  list  of  those  under  suspicion  as  having 
guilty  knowledge  of  the  Placards  of  October,  1534, 
which  had  cost  French  Protestantism  so  heavily.  The 
suspicion  with  which  these  fugitives  were  regarded  by 
the  churchly  authorities  at  Ferrara  was  confirmed  by 
an  act  of  one  of  Marot's  companions,  like  him  suspected 
of  connection  with  the  Placards,  a  young  singer  know^n 
as  Jehannet.  On  Good  Friday,  April  14,  1536,  he  had 
walked  out  of  the  church,  at  the  time  of  the  adoration 
of  the  Cross,  in  evident  disapproval  of  the  service.^ 
Arrested  and  examined  by  torture,  he  declared  many  of 
Renee's  proteges  adherents  of  the  new^er  views.  Most 
of  those  thus  implicated  promptly  left  Ferrara;  but 
investigation  continued,  and,  on  May  4,  another  of  the 
French  recipients  of  the  duchess's  bounty,  Jean  de 
Bouchefort,    a   clergyman   who   had    come   from   the 


^Bulletin,  x.  36,  37;   xxxiv.  291;    Doumergue,  ii.  52. 


152  John  Calvin  [1535- 

diocese  of  Tournay,  was  arrested  under  a  charge  of 
"  Lutheranism."  The  court  of  Ferrara  might  well  seem 
to  an  eager  French  reformer  a  hopeful  field  for  sowing 
Evangehcal  ideas,  or  even  for  inducing  a  duchess  already 
so  favourable  to  French  refugees  to  take  an  open  stand 
in  support  of  the  faith  which  many  of  them  cherished. 
A  young  humanist,  such  as  Calvin  was,  would,  moreover, 
gladly  embrace  an  opportunity  of  seeing  Italy,  and 
this  desire  Beza  presents  as  one  of  Calvin's  motives.^ 

How  far  Calvin's  hopes  may  have  reached  or  just 
what  he  attempted  in  Ferrara,  it  is  impossible  to  say. 
His  visit  was  brief.  He  was  later  wont  to  say  that  he 
had  entered  Italy  only  to  leave  it;  and,  though  his 
stay  has  been  variously  estimated,  it  was  probably  at 
most  from  the  middle  of  March  to  the  latter  part  of 
April.  The  arrest  of  Jehannet  appears  to  have  in- 
duced him  and  du  Tillet,  as  it  did  many  other  foreign 
visitors,  to  leave  the  dangerous  city.  Calvin  was  no 
rash  seeker  of  peril.  He  met  Renee,  and  made  the 
acquaintance  of  others  in  her  circle.  It  is  inconceivable 
that  he  did  not  make  plain  his  position  to  her,  and 
labour  to  win  her  to  a  more  positive  Evangelicalism, 
so  far  as  brief  opportunity  permitted ;  but  his  character 
and  mission  were  not  generally  revealed.  The  learned 
German  physician  at  the  court  of  the  duchess,  Johann 
Sinapius,  with  whom  Calvin  formed  an  acquaintance 
at  Ferrara,  remained  in  ignorance;^  and,  if  he  did  not 
know,  it  is  evident  that  Calvin  kept  his  dangerous  secret 


^  Opera,  xxi.  125. 

*  Sinapius's  letter,  Herminjard,  vi.  3;    Cornelius,  Historische  Ar- 
heiten,  p.  107. 


1536]      Italy  and  Arrival  in  Geneva      153 

from  the  world  al  large.  His  departure  from  Ferrara 
was  unhindered.  The  story  of  a  seizure  by  the  In- 
quisition and  an  escape  from  its  clutches,  first  recorded 
by  Muratori,  and  since  often  repeated,  in  dramatic 
form  for  instance  by  Merle  d'Aubigne,  and  with 
greater  care  of  investigation  by  Fontana,  is  legendary, — 
the  dates  involved  showing  that,  whatever  the  experi- 
ence may  have  been,  its  hero  was  not  Calvin.^ 

Though  brief,  Calvin's  visit  to  Ferrara  was  not  with- 
out result.  His  unusual  power  of  attracting  associates 
and  rendering  them  friends  was  once  more  manifested. 
In  spite  of  doubts  cast  upon  the  success  of  his  inter- 
course with  Renee,""  it  seems  to  have  paved  the 
way  for  the  correspondence  which,  though  not  begun 
till  at  least  a  year  later,  was  to  continue  till  Calvin's 
death.  But,  if  his  success  in  turning  the  duchess  to  a 
public  support  of  the  Evangelical  cause  was  not  what 
he  may  possibly  have  hoped,  he  won  the  devoted  friend- 
ship of  a  brilliant  young  French  lady  of  the  little  court, 
Franfoise  Boussiron,  daughter  of  the  lord  of  Grand-Ry 
in  Poitou,  and  soon  to  become  the  wife  of  that  Johann 
Sinapius  of  whom  mention  has  been  made.  To  her 
Calvin  became  a  spiritual  adviser,  and  with  her,  and 
soon  with  her  husband,  he  remained  in  correspondence. 
Writing  to  Calvin  from  his  later  home  in  Germany,  in 
1557,  more  than  two  years  after  her  death,  Sinapius 
could  say:    "She  honoured  you  as  long  as  she  lived, 


1  Muratori,  Annali  d'  Italia,  1749,  x.  275;  Merle  d'Aubignd,  La 
reformation  en  Europe  au  temps  de  Calvin,  v.  567;  Fontana,  Renata 
di  Francia,  1889,  passim;    Doumergue,  ii.  54-56. 

2  Cornelius,  p.  107;    compare  Doumergue,  ii.  57,  729-731. 


154 


John  Calvin  [1535- 


and  loved  you,  and  you,  in  turn,  regarded  her  as  a 
sister."  ^ 

A  frequent  subject  of  Calvin's  discussions  with  the 
little  group  into  brief  association  with  which  he  came 
at  Ferrara  must  have  been  the  proper  attitude  to  assume 
toward  the  services  of  the  ancient  Church.  That,  he 
tells  Renee  in  a  letter  written  very  possibly  in  1537, 
had  been  a  subject  of  conversation,  unquestionably  at 
Ferrara,  between  him  and  her  almoner,  the  adroit  and 
unstable  Francois  Richardot.  *  To  Richardot  he  showed 
a  "treatise,"  which  may  possibly  have  been  the  just 
pubhshed  Institutes,  but  which  was  more  probably  one 
of  two  burning  letters  of  entreaty  and  denunciation 
written,  so  Colladon  recorded,  on  this  Italian  journey,^ 
though  not  to  be  given  to  the  public  till  they  were 
put  forth  at  Basel,  early  in  1537,  by  the  same  printers 
that  had  issued  the  Institutes}  The  first  of  these  letters, 
and  probably  the  one  shown  to  Richardot  in  manuscript, 
was  addressed  to  an  "excellent  man  and  close  friend" 
who  has  always  been  identified  with  Calvin's  intimate 
associate  at  Orleans,  Nicolas  Duchemin,  though  it  is 
evident  that  the  author  had  in  view  the  general  body  of 
those  unwilling  or  afraid  to  carry  Protestant  convictions 
to  what  seemed  to  him  their  logical  conclusions,  rather 
than  a  single  reader.  He  answers  the  question,  cer- 
tainly a  very  pressing  one  in  those  days  of  persecution, 


I  Opera,  xvi.  375;   Doumergue,  ii.  66. 

*  Ibid.,  xi.  326;  on  date,  Doumergue,  ii.  729. 

3  Ibid.,  xxi.  60;  see  also  Calvin's  letter,  Herminjard,  vi.  200. 

4  The  Preface  was  dated  January  12,  1537.  Both  are  given  in 
Opera,  v.  233-278;  and  are  respectively  entitled  De  jugiendis  impi- 
orum  sacris  and  De  sacerdotio  papali  abjiciendo. 


1536]     Italy  and  Arrival  in  Geneva      155 

whether  a  man  of  Evangelical  convictions  could  give 
the  sanction  of  an  outward  conformity  to  much  of  the 
Roman  ritual,  notably  to  "that  head  of  all  abomina- 
tions, the  mass,"  with  a  decided  negative.  No  man,  he 
argues,  can  rightfully  offer  anything  less  than  a  con- 
scientious obedience  to  God's  commands  as  set  forth 
in  His  Word.  "This  is  specially  forbidden  you,  that 
any  one  should  see  you  sharing  in  the  sacrilege  of  the 
mass,  or  uncovering  the  head  before  an  image,  or  sup- 
porting any  superstition  whatever  of  a  nature  whereby 
the  glory  of  God  is  dimmed,  His  religion  profaned. 
His  truth  corrupted."  Such  a  position  was  undoubt- 
edly logical  and  heroic;  but  one  cannot  wonder  that 
many  could  not  reach  it,  nor  can  one  blame  these 
"Pseudo-Nicodemites"  as  much  as  Calvin  and  his 
age  were  wont  to  believe  they  deserved.  The  martyr 
spirit  is  not  given  to  all;  nor  had  Calvin  been  the  least 
cautious  of  men  in  avoiding  danger  by  Qvert  action  in 
Catholic  lands.  Calvin's  other  letter  was  addressed 
"to  an  old  friend,  now  a  prelate,"  who  was  undoubt- 
edly that  eager  humanistic  reformer  of  1533,  Gerard 
Roussel,  to  whom  Calvin  himself  had  owed  much,  but 
who  had  never  broken  with  the  Roman  Church,  and 
had  recently  received  the  bishopric  of  Oloron.  No- 
where in  his  writings  does  Calvin  show  more  passionate 
indignation.  To  him,  evidently,  Roussel  was  one  Avho 
had  turned  from  the  good  cause,  and  had  made  ship- 
wreck by  accepting  office  in  a  communion  marked  by 
greed  and  avarice.  His  friend  had  become  a  traitor. 
Calvin's  indignation  is  easy  to  understand.  Roussel 
had   changed,   however,   far  less   than  he   supposed. 


156  John  Calvin  [1535- 

The  advance  toward  militant  Protestantism  had  been 
in  Calvin  himself;  and  Roussel  carried  his  always 
incomplete  yet  real  EvangeHcal  ideas  to  his  bishopric, 
where  he  continued  to  do  much  the  same  work  as  when 
Calvin  had  formed  the  now  despised  friendship  with 
him  at  Paris. 

The  change  for  the  worse  in  the  situation  of  the  French 
refugees  at  Ferrara  consequent  upon  Jehannet's  overt 
action  induced  Calvin  and  du  Tillet  to  leave  a  city  that 
had  now  become  dangerous,  for  the  safety  of  Switzer- 
land. By  what  route  they  made  their  way  over  the 
Alps,  probably  early  in  May,  1536,  we  do  not  know; 
but  a  persistent  tradition  has  asserted  that  Calvin  en- 
gaged in  EvangeHcal  missionary  activity  in  Aosta,  the 
southern  terminus  of  the  St.  Bernard  pathway  across 
the  mountain  barrier  between  Italy  and  the  valley  of 
the  upper  Rhone.  Like  all  that  relates  to  Calvin's 
ItaUan  journey,  this  tradition  has  given  rise  to  contro- 
versy.' Anything  Uke  a  prolonged  activity  at  Aosta  is 
impossible;  but  the  Alpine  valley  was  the  scene  of 
much  religious  agitation  in  1535  and  1536,  and  it  is 
conceivable  that  Calvin  may  have  chosen  the  St.  Ber- 
nard route  and  have  made  a  brief  stay  at  x\osta  to  see 
with  his  own  eyes  the  religious  situation  and  the  pro- 
spects of  the  EvangeHcal  cause.     At  present  it  must 


I  Set  forth  and  defended  by  Jules  Bonnet  in  Calvin  au  vol  d'Aoste, 
Paris,  1 86 1,  the  story  was  destructively  and  effectively  criticised  by 
Albert;  Rilliet,  Leitre  a  M.  J.-H.  Merle  d'Aubigne,  1864.  The  evi- 
dence is  gone  over  anew  by  Doumergue,  ii.  85-94.  See  also  Eduard 
Bahler,  "Calvin  in  Aosta,"  in  the  Jahrhuch  des  Schweizer  Alpenclub, 
xxxix.  189-195;  and  the  Bulletin  for  March  and  April,  1905,  pp. 
177-183. 


1536]     Italy  and  Arrival  in  Geneva      157 

remain  a  matter  of  conjecture,  though  Calvin's  connec- 
tion with  Aosta  is  probably  purely  legendary.  What  is 
certain  is  that  Calvin  and  du  Tillet  reached  Basel  in 
safety,  and  there  separated,  du  Tillet  going  to  Neu- 
chatel  and  Geneva,  and  Calvin  taking  his  journey  to 
Paris  for  a  brief  sojourn  in  France,  that  he  might  put  in 
order  his  few  business  interests  in  that  land  and  bring 
back  his  brother  and  sister  with  him,  to  fmd  a  home  in 
the  Protestant  atmosphere  of  Strassburg  or  Basel.  ^ 

That  Calvin  was  thus  able  peacefully  to  return  to  a 
capital  from  which  he  had  been  compelled  to  flee  less 
than  three  years  before  was  due  to  the  exigencies  of 
French  politics.  Francis  had  entered  but  a  few  months 
on  the  persecutions  following  the  Placards  when  he 
turned  largely  from  them  to  begin  cultivating  the  Ger- 
man Protestants  as  possible  alHes  in  the  new  w^ar  with 
Charles  V.  that  was  to  break  out  early  in  1536.  In 
June,  1535,  he  invited  Melanchthon  to  visit  the  French 
court.  On  July  i6th  following,  he  issued  the  Edict  of 
Coucy,  permitting  those  charged  with  heresy  to  return, 
provided  they  would  desist  from  their  errors  and  abjure 
them  within  six  months.  On  May  31,  1536,  these 
privileges  had  been  confirmed.''  AvaiHng  himself  of 
this  grace,  Calvin  was  in  Paris  by  June  2,  1536,  for  on 
that  day  he  gave  a  power  of  attorney  to  his  younger 
brother  Antoine,  who,  ten  days  later,  joined  at  Noyon 
with  his  elder  brother,  Charles,  in  a  sale  of  lands  which 
had  belonged  to  their  parents.^     The  granting  of  this 


^  Colladon,  Opera,  xxi.  58. 

2  Opera,  xb.  55,  58;   Doumergue,  ii.  174. 

3  Documents  in  full  in  Lefranc,  Jeunesse,  pp.  205-208. 


158  John  Calvin  [1535-1536] 

power  of  attorney  makes  it  well-nigh  certain  that  Calvin 
himself  did  not  go  to  Noyon.     From  Paris,  his  business 
completed,  he  set  forth,  accompanied  by  Antoine  and 
his  sister  Marie,  for  Strassburg;  but  knowing,  as  he 
himself  later  recorded,  that  the  direct  route  was  barred 
by  the  war,  Calvin  made  a  long  detour,  probably  by  way 
of  Lyons,  reaching  Geneva  in  the  latter  half  of  July, 
and  intending  to  pass  only  a  single  night  in  the  city 
before  resuming  his  journey  to  the  Rhineland."     Recog- 
nised by  an  acquaintance,  in  all  probabiHty  du  Tillet, 
his  presence  was  made  known  to  Guillaume  Farel,  who 
was  strugghng  to  maintain  the  EvangeUcal  cause  in  the 
recently  reformed  city.     Farel,  always  fiery  and  elo- 
quent, urged  and  adjured  Calvin  to  stay  and  aid  in  the 
difficult  endeavour.     It  was  a  moment  of  far-reaching 
decision,  for  Calvin  recognised  as  he  believed  the  divine 
call,  and,  if  God  had  spoken.  His  voice  was  to  be  obeyed. 
"Farel  kept  me  at  Geneva,"  he  said,  writing  of  the 
event,  "not  so  much  by  advice  and  entreaty  as  by  a 
dreadful  adjuration,  as  if  God  had  stretched  forth  His 
hand  upon  me  from  on  high  to  arrest  me.""    That 
the  task  was  hard  and  unexpected  was  no  reason  why 
that  divine  summons  should  be  disregarded.     God,  he 
thought,  had  set  before  him  the  work  to  be  done.     He 
would  enter  on  it. 


1  Preface  to  Psalms,  Opera,  xxxi.  26.    On  time  of  arrival  at  Geneva 
see  Herminjard,  iv.  74,  75;    Doumergue,  ii.  7. 

2  Ibid.f  Opera,  xxxi.  26. 


CHAPTER  VII 

GENEVA   TILL   CALVIN'S   COMING 

NO  city  in  Christendom  had  had  a  more  eventful 
or  stormier  history  than  Geneva  '  during  the 
generation  and  especially  during  the  decade  preceding 
Calvin's  coming.  In  none  had  more  diverse  forces 
contended  for  the  mastery.  Intermixed  as  political 
considerations  were  in  all  the  religious  struggles  of  the 
Reformation  period,  nowhere  was  the  skein  more  tangled 
than  at  Geneva;  and  nowhere,  also,  did  the  field  seem 
more  difficult  for  the  development  of  a  movement  pre- 
dominantly religious  in  character. 

Known  certainly  since  the  time  of  Julius  Caesar, 
Geneva  had  been  a  town  of  importance  under  Roman 
rule,  and  had  become  the  seat  of  a  bishopric  soon  after 
the  conversion  of  Constantine  gave  peace  to  the  Church. 
The  downfall  of  the  Roman  empire  saw  Geneva  the 
capital  of  the  Burgundian  kingdom;  and,  after  various 
vicissitudes,  it  came,  early  in  the  twelfth  century,  under 
the  overlordship  of  the  Hohenstaufen  emperors,  and  was 
known,  perhaps  not  quite  justly,  as  an  ''imperial  city." 
The   real  possessors  of  power  in  the  city  during  this 


I  By  far  the  best  sketch  in  English  is  that  of  Prof.  H.  D.  Foster, 
"Geneva  before  Calvin,"  in  The  American  Historical  Review,  viii. 
217-240  (1903),  where  the  more  important  sources  are  indicated. 
More  extended  and  very  valuable  are  Kampschulte,  Johann  Cal- 
vin, i.  3-218;   and  Doumergue,  ii.  97-149. 

159 


i6o  John  Calvin 

period  were,  however,  the  counts  of  Geneva  and  its 
bishops;  and  between  these  spiritual  and  lay  rulers  con- 
stant struggles  were  waged,  which  resulted  in  the  decided 
victory  of  the  ecclesiastical  lords.  With  the  thirteenth 
century,  a  new  lay  force  made  itself  felt, — that  of  the 
rising,  ambitious,  and  energetic  house  of  Savoy.  The 
Genevan  bishops  used  its  aid  to  rid  themselves  of  the 
last  remnants  of  the  power  of  the  Genevan  counts, 
only  to  find  that  in  the  rulers  of  Savoy  they  were  to 
meet  a  far  abler  enemy.  In  1285,  Amadeus  V.,  of 
Savoy,  entered  into  a  compact  to  protect  the  burghers  of 
Geneva  against  their  bishop,  and  in  1290  the  bishop 
was  forced  to  yield  as  a  fief  to  that  energetic  count  of 
Savoy  the  appointment  of  the  episcopal  deputy  for 
temporal  administration,  or  vicedominus, — a  post  which 
its  new  lords  retained  under  their  control  till  1528,  and 
with  it  a  position  of  influence  in  Genevan  affairs. 
Meanwhile  the  burghers  of  the  city,  who  had  been  of 
sufficient  significance  to  be  courted  in  the  aggressions 
of  Savoy  as  early  as  1285,  were  demanding  recognition 
of  their  claims,  till  after  long  struggles  they  forced 
from  Bishop  Adhemar  Fabri,  in  1387,  the  Franchises ^ 
which  gave  constitutional  sanction  to  their  much-prized 
customs.  By  this  charter  the  right  of  the  citizens 
to  gather  in  a  General  Assembly  (Conseil  general)  for 
the  choice  of  administrative  officers  was  recognised. 
These  functionaries  were  four  "syndics"  selected 
annually,  and  a  treasurer  elected  for  a  term  of  three 
years.  With  the  addition  of  the  syndics  of  the  previous 
year  and  of  counsellors  selected  by  the  syndics  in  office, 
there  speedily  developed  the  "Little  Council,"— at  first 


Geneva  till   Calvin's   Cominj^^      i6i 

of  a  variable  number,  but  ultimately  of  twenty-five 
members,  which  constituted  the  inner  consultative  and 
executive  body  in  the  administration  of  the  interests  of 
the  burghers.  A  second,  and  larger  Council,  originally 
fifty,  but  speedily  sixty  in  number,  was  established,  in 
1457,  to  discuss  matters  not  conveniently  debatable  in 
the  General  Assembly;  and  the  aristocratic  tendencies 
of  the  Genevan  citizenship  are  illustrated  by  the  fact 
that,  from  1459  onward,  the  members  of  this  larger 
Council  were  designated  by  the  ''Little  Council."  The 
government  of  Geneva,  by  the  end  of  the  fourteenth 
centur}^,  w^as  therefore  shared  by  three  powers,  the 
bishop,  the  vicedominus,  and  the  citizens,  and  this 
division  of  authority  continued  till  the  struggles  of  the 
third  decade  of  the  sixteenth  century-.  The  bishop, 
honoured  with  the  title  "Prince  of  Geneva"  and  in 
theory  sovereign  of  the  city  under  the  emperor,  pos- 
sessed the  rights  of  leadership  in  war,  of  coining  money, 
of  hearing  appeals  and  of  granting  pardons.  To  the 
vicedominus  fell  the  duties  of  defending  the  city,  guard- 
ing prisoners,  executing  criminals  and  of  exercising  a 
restricted  judicial  function  in  civil  and  criminal  cases. 
To  the  representatives  of  the  citizens  was  ascribed  the 
decision  of  all  serious  criminal  charges  against  laymen. 
To  them  belonged  the  maintenance  of  good  order  at 
night  by  a  suitable  police  force  throughout  the  city,  and 
they  were  charged  with  a  watchful  supervision  lest  the 
rights  guaranteed  by  the  Franchises  should  be  infringed. 
The  population  of  Geneva,  which  may  have  numbered 
about  thirteen  thousand  permanent  residents,  was  as 
varied  as  the  government  of  the  city  was  divided.     The 


i62  John  Calvin 

situation  of  the  city  near  the  most  frequented  passes 
over  the  Alps  made  it  a  centre  of  trade  where  products 
of  France,  Germany,  and  Italy  were  exchanged.  Its 
merchants  were  prosperous,  and  its  workmen  skilled 
and  widely  famed.  Its  rank  as  a  commercial  city  was 
high.  As  a  centre  of  ecclesiastical  foundations,  it  was 
scarcely  less  conspicuous.  Its  bishopric  was  accounted 
one  of  the  most  desirable  ecclesiastical  posts  in  Western 
Christendom,  its  cathedral  chapter  was  largely  recruited 
from  the  noble  famiHes  of  the  region.  The  city  was 
divided  into  seven  parishes,  and  monasticism  was  repre- 
sented by  strong  estabhshments  of  Benedictines  of  the 
Cluny  congregation,  of  Dominicans,  Franciscans,  and 
Augustinians,  and  a  nunnery  of  the  Clarissines.  With  its 
three  hundred  clerics  and  nuns,  its  ornate  churches, 
and  its  pilgrims  to  the  ancient  shrine  of  Saint- Victor, 
the  ecclesiastical  significance  of  the  town  was  constantly 
in  evidence,  though  unfortunately  the  character  of  its 
clergy  was  open  to  very  serious  reproach.  A  pleasant, 
bustling  city,  it  was  also  a  favourite  place  of  residence 
for  the  lesser  nobility  of  the  neighbouring  lands,  not 
a  few  of  whom  settled  permanently  within  its  walls. 
With  so  much  that  was  attractive  was  combined,  also, 
not  a  little  that  is  less  pleasing  in  life  and  manners. 
Geneva  had  the  vices  of  a  commercial  city,  situated  on 
the  highways  of  travel;  and  its  population  was  un- 
doubtedly more  than  usually  pleasure-loving  and 
luxurious.  Its  moral  standards  were  low,  and  among 
those  who  set  evil  example  to  its  dwellers  were  members 
of  some  of  its  most  distinguished  families,  and  many  in 
priestly  office  or  under  monastic  vows. 


Geneva  till  Calvin's  Coming      163 

A  city  of  contrasts  and  marked  individuality,  its  in- 
habitants have  been  well  characterised  by  a  careful 
American  student  of  its  history : ' — 

The  Genevans,  in  fact,  were  not  a  simple,  but  a  complex, 
cosmopolitan  people.  There  was,  at  this  crossing  of  the 
routes  of  trade,  a  mingling  of  French,  German,  and  Italian 
stock  and  characteristics;  a  large  body  of  clergy  of  very 
dubious  morality  and  force;  and  a  still  larger  body  of 
burghers,  rather  sounder  and  far  more  energetic  and  ex- 
tremely independent,  but  keenly  devoted  to  pleasure.  It 
had  the  faults  and  follies  of  a  mediaeval  city  and  of  a  wealthy 
centre  in  all  times  and  lands;  and  also  the  progressive  power 
of  an  ambitious,  self-governing,  and  cosmopolitan  com- 
munity. At  their  worst,  the  early  Genevans  were  noisy  and 
riotous  and  revolutionary;  fond  of  processions  and  ''mum- 
meries" (not  always  respectable  or  safe),  of  gambling, 
immorality,  and  loose  songs  and  dances;  possibly  not  over- 
scrupulous at  a  commercial  or  political  bargain;  and  very 
self-assertive  and  obstinate.  At  their  best,  they  were  grave, 
shrewd,  business-like  statesmen,  working  slowly  but  surely, 
with  keen  knowledge  of  politics  and  human  nature;  with 
able  leaders  ready  to  devote  time  and  money  to  public 
progress;  and  with  a  pretty  intelligent,  though  less  judicious, 
following.  In  diplomacy  they  were  as  deft,  as  keen  at  a 
bargain,  and  as  quick  to  take  advantage  of  the  weakness  of 
competitors,  as  they  were  shrewd  and  adroit  in  business. 
They  were  thrifty,  but  knew  how  to  spend  well;  quick- 
witted and  gifted  in  the  art  of  party-nicknames.  Finally, 
they  were  passionately  devoted  to  liberty,  energetic,  and 
capable  of  prolonged  self-sacrifice  to  attain  and  retain  what 
they  were  convinced  were  their  rights.     On  the  borders  of 


Prof.  H.  D.  Foster,  American  Historkal  Review,  viii.  239. 


i64  John  Calvin 

Switzerland,  France,  Germany,  and  Italy,  they  belonged  in 
temper  to  none  of  these  lands;  out  of  their  Savoyard  traits, 
their  wars,  reforms,  and  new-comers,  in  time  they  created  a 
distinct  type,  the  Genevese. 

It  is  evident  that  the  Genevan  political  situation  con- 
tained elements  of  constant  rivalry  in  the  existence  of 
divided  authority.     The  house  of  Savoy  sought  un- 
ceasingly to  increase  its  power  over  the  city.     Con- 
trolHng  the  ofhce  of  vicedominus  from  1290  onv^ard, 
and  succeeding  by  purchase  to  the  claims  of  the  counts 
of  Geneva  in  1401  after  the  extinction  of  their  direct 
male  line  in  1394,  it  gained  the  bishopric,  also,  when, 
in  1444,  Amadeus  VIII.  of  Savoy,  the  counter-pope  of 
the  Council  of  Basel,  took  upon  himself  that  episcopal 
office.     From  his  death  in  145 1  till  1490  the  see  was 
successively  held  by  three  of  his  grandsons,  two  of  whom 
were  scandalously  young  for  entrance  on  their  high 
office,  and  none  of  whom  was  of  religious  character. 
In  the  appointments  of  the  succeeding  bishops,  Antoine 
Champion  (1491-1495)  and  the  seven-year-old  Philip 
of  Savoy  (1495-15 10),  the  influence  of  the  rulers  of 
Savoy  was  controlling,  and  their  power  was  once  more 
manifest  in  the  estabhshment  on  the  episcopal  throne  of 
John,  the  ''Bastard  of  Savoy"  (1513-1522),  son  of  the 
third  grandson  of  Amadeus  VIII.  who  had  held  the 
Genevan  bishopric.     To  him  Pierre  de  la  Baume  suc- 
ceeded,—a   man   of   better  personal   Hfe,   but   weak, 
luxurious,  and  unworthy  of  his  office,  against  whom  the 
burghers  were  to  rise  in  successful  rebelHon. 

These  constant  aggressions  of  the  house  of  Savoy 


Geneva  till  Calvin's  Coming"      165 

were  met  with  growing  liostility  by  the  burghers  of 
Geneva.  Led  by  two  men  of  very  unlike  character  but 
of  conspicuous  force,  Philibert  Berthelier  and  Bezanson 
Hugues,  the  citizens,  on  February  6,  15 19,  entered  into 
an  aUiance  for  protection  against  Savoyard  attack  with 
the  burghers  of  Freiburg, — the  party  favouring  the 
league  being  popularly  known  as  "Eidguenots" 
(Eidgenossen)f  while  their  opponents  who  supported 
Savoy  wTre  known  as  *'Mamelouks."  The  first 
struggle  was,  however,  disastrous.  Duke  Charles  III., 
of  Savoy,  forced  the  abandonment  of  the  alliance. 
The  power  of  the  bishop  was  restored.  In  August  of 
the  same  year,  Berthelier  was  beheaded.  With  the 
change  of  bishopric  from  John  of  Savoy  to  Pierre  de  la 
Baume  in  1522,  much  was  hoped  for  by  the  citizens; 
but  the  new  prelate  proved  without  firmness,  and  his 
own  historic  rights  no  less  than  those  of  the  burghers 
were  trampled  upon  by  the  duke,  who  was  determined 
to  make  Geneva  practically  a  Savoyard  city.  By  the 
close  of  1525,  by  the  aid  of  his  troops,  the  duke  seemed 
to  have  accomplished  his  purpose;  but  his  departure 
from  the  city  showed  the  real  weakness  of  his  work 
and  he  was  never  again  to  set  foot  in  the  town.  Un- 
able to  count  on  the  bishop  for  help  against  Savoy,  the 
citizens  under  the  leadership  of  Bezanson  Hugues  now 
turned  once  more  to  Freiburg  for  aid,  and  to  the  most 
powerful  of  the  Swiss  cantons,  that  of  Bern.  By 
March,  1526,  Geneva  was  in  formal  alHance  with  her 
two  neighbours,  and  the  weak  bishop,  after  vain  protest, 
became  apparently  and  professedly  a  hearty  supporter 
of  the  new  order.     It  was  only  for  a  brief  season,  how- 


i66  John  Calvin 

ever,  that  Pierre  de  la  Baume  stood  on  the  patriotic 
side.  In  1527,  he  left  the  city,  never  to  re-enter  it,  save 
for  a  few  days  in  the  summer  of  1533;  and,  by  1528, 
he  was  fully  committed  to  the  interests  of  Savoy. 

These  successful  assertions  of  Genevan  independence 
led  naturally  to  a  modification  of  the  constitution  of 
the  city,  and  to  the  growth  to  power  of  a  more  radical 
party  than  that  of  which  Bezanson  Hugues  had  been 
the  leader.  The  year  1527  saw  the  erection  of  a  new 
Council,  that  of  the  "Two  Hundred,"  in  imitation  of 
Bern, — a  body  chosen,  certainly  from  1530  onward,  by 
the  Little  Council  and  practically  absorbing  the  business 
of  the  still  existing  Council  of  Sixty.  Within  the  next 
two  years,  the  authority  of  the  vicedominus  was  abol- 
ished, and  new  judicial  offices  were  established  by  the 
General  Assembly  of  the  citizens.  The  Savoyards 
pressed  Geneva  and  made  travel  unsafe  on  the  roads 
leading  to  its  gates,  but  mihtar}^  aid  from  Bern,  in 
1530,  relieved  the  situation.  Thus  far  no  serious 
thought  of  a  religious  revolution  had  entered  into 
Genevan  plans.  The  bishop  might  have  kept  much  of 
his  power  had  he  sided  permanently  with  the  burghers; 
but  he  had  chosen  the  part  of  their  enemies,  and  hos- 
tiUty  to  Savoy  involved  more  and  more  opposition  to  his 
authority  also.  In  August,  1533,  the  syndics  denied  to 
the  bishop  his  historic  right  to  exercise  the  power  of 
pardon;  and  fourteen  months  later  his  office  was  de- 
clared by  them  to  be  vacant. 

The  later  developments  of  this  struggle  were  com- 
plicated by  the  beginnings  of  the  Reformation  movement 
in  the  city, — a  movement  for  which  the  attitude  of  the 


Geneva  till  Calvin's  Coming      i6 


bishop  more  than  any  other  single  cause  opened  the 
way.  From  1528  onward,  Geneva  was  in  a  difficult 
situation  in  view  of  the  religious  controversies  of  the 
hour.  Bern,  the  stronger  of  her  two  alHes,  accepted 
Protestantism  that  year,  and  thenceforward  ardently 
furthered  the  Protestant  cause;  while  Freiburg,  the 
less  powerful  but  the  earlier  and  more  friendly  member 
of  the  league,  stood  staunchly  by  the  older  Church. 
When  Bernese  troops  occupied  the  city  in  1530,  Protest- 
ant preaching  and  Protestant  attack  upon  the  symbols 
of  Roman  worship  accompanied  their  presence;  but 
the  people  as  a  whole  had,  as  yet,  Httle  sympathy  with 
religious  innovation.  By  the  ninth  of  June,  1532,  how- 
ever, there  was  enough  Protestant  feeling  in  Geneva 
to  lead  to  the  placarding  of  the  public  buildings  of  the 
city  with  an  assertion  of  the  Lutheran  doctrine  of  justi- 
fication by  faith  alone.  The  clerical  leaders,  the  papal 
nuncio,  and  the  Freiburg  allies  expressed  their  displeas- 
ure. The  Genevan  government,  hard  pressed  between 
the  diverse  sentiments  of  its  fellow-leaguers,  disclaimed 
any  desire  to  modify  the  faith  of  the  fathers  or  to 
adopt  Lutheranism,  but  at  the  same  time  requested  the 
vicar  to  order  preaching  of  "the  gospel  and  epistle  of 
God  according  to  truth,  without  minghng  with  it  any 
fables  or  other  human  inventions," — a  vote  which  cer- 
tainly went  a  considerable  way  toward  neutraHsing  the 
declarations  of  adhesion  to  the  Roman  side,  as  it  was 
doubtless  intended  to  do.  Though  still  relatively  feeble, 
it  is  evident  that  enough  anti-Roman  feeling  existed  in 
Geneva  by  the  summer  of  1532,  thanks  to  the  attitude 
of  Bern,  popular  hostihty  to  the  bishop,  and,  it  may  be. 


i68  John  Calvin 

some  real  spiritual  sympathy  with  the  doctrines  that 
Luther  had  made  prominent,  to  insure  a  hearing  for  any 
bold  preacher  of  Protestantism.  In  October  following, 
such  a  proclaimer  of  reformed  doctrine  came  in  the 
person  of  Guillaume  Farel. 

Farel's  history  had  indeed  been  stormy.^  Born  in 
1489  of  a  family  of  distinction  near  Gap,  about  fifty 
miles  southward  of  Grenoble  in  southeastern  France, 
he  was  Calvin's  senior  by  twenty  years.  From  a  de- 
voted adhesion  to  the  Roman  Church  he  had  passed, 
during  his  student  years  at  Paris  and  under  the  influ- 
ence of  Le  Fevre,  through  the  gateway  of  humanistic 
sympathies,  to  a  full  Protestantism.  Of  intense  nature, 
his  development  had  been  at  the  cost  of  much  inward 
struggle,  and  he  became  one  of  the  most  fiery  and 
uncompromising  advocates  of  the  Evangelical  faith. 
After  some  preaching  at  Meaux  under  the  countenance 
of  Bishop  Brifonnet,  persecution  compelled  him  to  fly 
from  France,  and,  by  1524,  he  was  vigorously  aiding 
the  success  of  the  party  of  Reform  in  Basel;  but  the 
opposition  of  Erasmus  forced  his  withdrawal.  We  next 
find  him  in  a  strenuous  and  polemic  ministry  of  two 
years'  duration  at  MontbeHard,  about  thirty-five  miles 
westward  of  the  Swiss  city  just  mentioned.  Some 
months  of  sojourn  in  Basel  and  Strassburg  were  followed, 
late  in  1526,  by  the  beginning  of  a  stormy  pastorate  in 
Aigle,  a  town,  then  under  Bernese  jurisdiction,  situated 
on  the  Rhone  a  few  miles  above  its  entrance  into  Lake 


I  Herminjard,  i.  178;  ii.  42,  79;  R.  Stahelin,  in  Hauck's  Realencyklo- 
pddie  Jiir  prot.  Theologie  und  Kirche,  v.  762-767;  Doumergue,  ii.  150- 
172. 


GVILLEL  MVS     FARELLVS. 


WILLIAM   FAREL. 


Geneva  till  Calvin's  Coming      169 

Geneva.  Here  he  contributed  not  a  little  to  the  move- 
ment which  won  Bern  for  Protestantism  in  1528,  and 
he  now  received  a  roving  commission  to  preach  the 
Evangelical  faith  in  all  towns  under  Bernese  authority, 
chiefly  of  course  those  in  which  his  native  French  was 
spoken.  He  became  the  missionary  of  Protestantism  to 
Romance  Switzerland.  Everywhere  he  went,  notably 
at  Neuchatel,  there  was  tumult;  but  his  success  was 
great.  Opposition,  danger,  even  wounds,  but  spurred 
him  to  more  unsparing  denunciation  and  more  abundant 
activity.  About  three  years  of  this  itinerant  evangehsm 
had  passed  when  his  desire  to  aid  the  Reformed  cause 
brought  him  early  in  October,  1532,^  to  the  struggling 
and  much-beset  city  of  Geneva.  He  was  a  man  fitted 
as  few  even  of  his  polemic  age  to  arouse  attention  and 
to  stimulate  controversy.  Of  stentorian  voice,  homely 
and  forceful  speech,  and  undaunted  courage,  men  might 
approve  or  reject  the  messenger  and  his  preaching,  but 
indifference  to  him  was  scarcely  possible.  Accom- 
panied by  his  friend  Antoine  Saunier,  and  probably  also 
by  Pierre  Robert  Olivetan,  with  both  of  whom  he  had 
been  labouring  among  the  Waldenses,  and  armed  with 
a  letter  from  the  Bernese  authorities,  Farel  began  his 
work.  Geneva  had,  as  yet,  scanty  hearing  for  him. 
Interrogated  by  the  civil  authorities,  he  was  cited  before 
the  bishop's  vicar,  and  the  chapter.  Here  he  met 
heated  attack  with  characteristic  intrepidity;  but  the 
populace  and  even  the  cathedral    canons   wished  to 


^  The  date  is  given  in  the  interesting  chronicle  of  the  nun,  Jeanne  de 
Jussie,  published  as  Le  levain  du  Calvinisiney  Chambery,  i64o(?), 
Geneva,  1865,  pp.  46-51. 


lyo  John  Calvin 

throw  him  into  the  Rhone,  a  gun  burst  as  it  was  being 
fired  at  him,  and  he  was  kicked  and  struck  in  the  face  ' 
by  officers  of  the  Church.     The  next  day,  October  4th, 
he  and  his  companions  had  to  seek  safety  by  flight  up 
the  lake  from  Geneva,  landing  near  Lausanne,  and 
going  to  Orbe,  not  quite  twenty  miles  northward.     Here 
Farel  found  a  younger  fellow-behever,  Antoine  Froment, 
and  persuaded  him   to  go  to   Geneva  to  attempt  the 
work  which  opposition  had  made  impossible  for  Farel. 
Like  Farel  a  native  of  Dauphine,  Froment  was  now 
about  twenty-four  years  of  age.     He  had  early  attracted 
the  attention  not  only  of  Le  Fevre,  but  of  Marguerite 
d'Angouleme.     From  1529,  he  had  aided  Farel  in  the 
spread  of  Reformed  doctrine  in  Switzerland.     A  man 
of  slight  frame,  eager  spirit,  and  undoubted  courage, 
this  portion  of  his  life  seems  to  have  been  entirely  free 
from  the  stains  with  which  his  checkered  career  was 
later  to  be  marked.     He  now  began  his  work  in  Geneva 
in  the  guise  of  a  schoolmaster  eager  to  give  instruction 
in  French,  but  under  the  protection  of  this  occupation 
he  propagated  EvangeHcal  doctrines  to  the  utmost  of  his 
power.     His  hearers  increased,  till,  on  January  i,  1533, 
he  ventured  to  preach  in  the  square  known   as  the 
"Molard."  -     The  riot  which  followed  led  the  Council 
of  Two  Hundred  to  forbid,  by  a  vote  passed  the  next 
day,  any  preaching  without  the  permission  of  the  syndics 
or  of  the  bishop's  vicar;   but,  though  Geneva  was  still 


1  Jeanne  de  Jussie,  p.  49;  Froment,  Les  ades  et  gestes  .  .  .  de  Geneve, 
ed.  1854,  pp.  6,  7. 

2  This  has  been  called  the  "first  public  Protestant  sermon  in 
Geneva,"  but  Megander  had  preached,  in  Germian,  during  the  Bernese 
occupation  in  1530. 


Geneva  till  Calvin's  Coming      lyi 

almost  wholly  Catholic,  the  beginnings  of  a  Protestant 
congregation  had  been  made.  Bern  urged  its  powerful 
influence  in  favour  of  the  reformers  by  a  letter  received 
on  March  25,  1533;  ^  and,  three  days  later,  a  battle  in 
the  streets  was  narrowly  averted  by  the  syndics,  while 
the  Council  of  Two  Hundred  tried  to  keep  peace  by  a 
truce  which  was  really  a  partial  compromise.^  It 
availed  little.  At  the  Easter  season  the  Protestants 
observed  the  Lord's  supper  for  the  first  time,  and  on 
May  4th  following,  in  a  riot,  Canon  Werly,  one  of  their 
most  determined  opponents,  was  killed.  He  had  been 
a  citizen  of  Geneva's  Catholic  ally,  Freiburg,  and  the 
government  of  that  canton  now  persuaded  Bishop 
Pierre  de  la  Baume  to  return  to  Geneva,  as  the  best 
means  of  restoring  ecclesiastical  order;  but  the  prelate 
showed  himself  utterly  incompetent,  and  on  July  14th 
left  the  city, — as  it  proved  for  ever.  The  conflict  was 
but  intensified.  Guy  Furbity,  a  Dominican  preacher 
of  denunciatory  zeal,  was  imported,  in  the  late  autumn 
of  1533,  to  defend  the  Roman  cause;  and,  in  December, 
Farel  once  more  ventured  to  come  to  Geneva.  Frei- 
burg and  Bern  now  sent  delegates  to  further  their 
opposing  religious  interests;  and  with  those  of  Geneva's 
Protestant  ally  came  once  more  a  pupil  of  Farel,  who 
had  already  been  for  a  brief  time  in  the  city  ten  months 
before,  Pierre  Viret,  a  Swiss  of  Orbe,  of  slender  figure 
and  low  stature,  now  not  quite  twenty-three  years  of 
age,  but  already  widely-known  no  less  for  his  skill  as  a 
preacher  than  for  his  sweetness  of  temper  and  personal 


»  Herminjard,  iii.  32. 

^  Foster,  Am.  Hist.  Review,  viii.  224-,  Doumergue,  ii.  118. 


172  John    Calvin 

modesty.  On  March  i,  1534,  Farel  and  his  supporters 
seized  the  chapel  of  the  Franciscan  monastery  known 
as  the  "Rive,"  and  held  pubHc  worship.  The  dis- 
tracted government,  drawn  in  both  directions,  was 
forced  to  side  with  its  Protestant  poHtical  ally,  Bern,  as 
the  stronger;  and,  on  May  15th,  the  league  with  Catho- 
lic Freiburg  was  broken  under  Bernese  pressure.  Eight 
days  later,  an  iconoclastic  attempt  showed  the  growing 
Protestant  strength;  and,  on  the  twenty-fourth  of  the 
following  July,  the  Little  Council  formally  voted  that 
"the  sole  power  is  the  Word  of  Christ  and  the  sword 
which  He  has  committed  to  the  powers."' 

Much  of  the  late  success  of  the  Protestants  had  been 
due  to  the  fatuous  policy  of  Bishop  Pierre  de  la  Baume, 
who  was  earnestly  supporting  the  Savoyard  claims, 
and,  by  the  summer  of  1534,  was  doing  all  he  could  to 
raise  troops  against  the  city.  Under  such  circumstances 
Geneva  came  increasingly  under  Protestant  control,  for 
its  independence  seemed  bound  up  in  resistance  to  its 
spiritual  no  less  than  to  its  ducal  foes.  On  October 
I  St,  the  Little  Council,  as  already  noted,  declared  the 
bishop's  office  vacant;  yet  Geneva  was  still  far  from 
Protestant  by  doctrinal  conviction,  and  a  Protestant  ob- 
server, writing  less  than  two  weeks  earlier,  had  affirmed 
that  scarcely  a  third  of  its  inhabitants  could  be  counted 
against  the  bishop  and  the  duke.^  It  was  well-nigh 
impossible,  however,  to  remain  neutral  in  that  strenuous 
age.  The  current  now  swept  strongly  on.  An  at- 
tempt, so  it  was  widely  believed,  to  poison  the  ministers, 


^  Foster,  op.  cit.,  p.  224. 

«  Berthold  Hallcr  to  Bucer,  Herminjard,  iii.  209. 


Geneva  till  Calvin's  Coming      173 

which  nearly  cost  Viret  his  life  on  March  6,  1535,  was 
followed  by  the  execution  of  the  woman  who  was 
thought  its  principal  instrument;  and  being  widely, 
though  it  is  impossible  to  judge  whether  correctly, 
charged  to  the  instigation  of  the  Roman  clergy,  it 
greatly  increased  the  tension  between  the  contesting 
factions.'  The  government  took  the  ministers,  whom  it 
beUeved  imperilled,  under  its  protection  and  assigned 
them  quarters  in  the  monastery  of  Rive.  Farel  pressed 
for  a  pubHc  debate,  such  as  had  resulted  favourably  for 
Protestantism  at  Zurich,  Bern,  and  elsewhere.  The 
bishop  forbade  his  followers  to  take  part.  With  diffi- 
culty two  already  wavering  champions  of  Rome  were 
found  in  the  persons  of  Jean  Chappuis,  a  Dominican 
monk,  and  Pierre  CaroH,  a  doctor  of  the  Sorbonne 
who  had  already  fallen  into  disrepute  with  the  Roman 
authorities  at  Paris,  and  was  later  to  incur  Calvin's 
displeasure. 

The  result  of  this  one-sided  discussion,  which  lasted 
from  May  30th  to  June  24th,  was  of  course  claimed  as  a 
victory  by  the  Protestant  party,  and  Farel  hastened  to 
reap  its  fruits.  On  July  23d,  he  seized  the  Church  of 
La  Madeleine  and  preached  in  it.  The  government 
tried  to  temporise.  Its  position  was  difficult;  the  city 
was  still  divided  religiously.  On  July  30th,  the  Little 
Council  ordered  the  Protestants  to  Umit  this  preaching 
to  the  monastery  of  Rive  and  the  Church  of  Saint- Ger- 
main; but  Farel  felt  victory  was  with  him.  He  had 
the  same  day  declared  to  the  Council  that  "he  must 
obey  God  rather  than  men."     With  the  support  of  his 

I  Kampschulte,  i.  159;  Doumergue,  ii.  131. 


174  John  Calvin 

friends  he  now  seized  successively  the  Church  of  Saint- 
Gervais,  then  that  of  the  Dominicans,  and,  finally, 
on  x\ugust  8th,  the  Cathedral  of  Saint-Pierre  itself. 
Image-breaking  immediately  followed.  The  churches 
were  pillaged  by  the  mob.  The  government  bowed. 
On  August  loth,  the  Council  of  Two  Hundred,  by  a 
majority  vote,  while  ordering  image-breaking  to  cease, 
also  directed  that  the  celebration  of  the  mass  be  sus- 
pended until  further  notice.  ^  The  downfall  of  the 
Roman  party  was  evident.  The  revolution  had  taken 
place,  and  the  Roman  clergy,  monks  and  nuns  ^  now 
generally  left  the  city.  It  was  during  these  dramatic 
events  of  August,  1535,  that  Calvin,  in  his  quiet  retire- 
ment at  Basel,  was  finishing  the  Letter  to  Francis  I. 
with  which  his  Institutes  was  to  be  prefaced. 

Protestant  conviction  and  aggressive  zeal,  and  epis- 
copal hostihty  to  the  independence  of  the  city,  were  not, 
however,  the  only  causes  of  the  downfall  of  the  Roman 
cause  in  Geneva.  The  clergy  as  a  body  seems  to  have 
been  ignorant  and  inefficient.  Not  a  few  of  them  were 
unworthy.  If  any  monastic  order  had  deservedly  a 
reputation  in  Christendom  above  others  for  learning, 
it  was  that  of  St.  Dominic;  but  the  Genevan  Dominicans 
excused  themselves  from  sharing  in  the  debate  of  May, 
1535,  on  the  ground  that  they  had  no  learned  man 
among  them.^  Jeanne  de  Jussie  makes  it  apparent 
that  the  moral  status  of  many  of  the  clergy  was  scan- 
dalous, and  recent  investigation  confirms  the  earlier 


1  Registres  die  Conseil,  quoted  by  Foster,  op.  cii.,  p.  225. 

2  Jeanne  de  Jussie  gives  a  picturesque  account. 

3  Kampschulte,  i.  171. 


'^        op 


I 


Geneva  till  Calvin's  Coming       175 

testimony.'  As  Kampschulte  has  well  said:  "The 
Catholic  episcopal  city  fell,  since  it  must  fall,  like  a 
fortress  the  defence  of  which  is  intrusted  to  the  hands 
of  the  cowardly  and  the  unfit."  ^ 

While  the  later  events  just  narrated  were  happening, 
Geneva  was  sustaining  a  difficult  political  struggle. 
The  bishop,  from  his  castle  of  Peney,  a  few  miles  down 
the  Rhone,  in  co-operation  with  the  Duke  of  Savoy, 
was  raising  troops,  pillaging  the  environs  of  Geneva, 
cutting  off  its  trade,  maltreating  such  of  its  citizens  as 
were  captured,  and  pressing  it  sorely.  Bern  would 
give  no  help,  doubtless  by  reason  of  the  selfish  expecta- 
tion that  hard-beset  Geneva  would  come  under  Bernese 
jurisdiction  as  the  price  of  its  deHverance.  When,  in 
the  autumn  of  1535,  Neuchatel  marched  to  the  aid  of 
Geneva,  Bernese  agents  sent  these  helpers  homeward 
after  an  auspicious  success  in  battle  at  Gingins.  And 
now,  in  December,  1535,  King  Francis  of  France, 
about  to  attack  the  Duke  of  Savoy  who  had  been  won 
by  the  crafty  policy  of  Charles  V.,  for  the  imperial  side 
in  the  great  struggle  for  the  headship  of  Europe,  offered 
French  protection  to  Geneva  on  terms  which  seemed 
to  promise  well-nigh  full  local  freedom.  Had  they  been 
accepted,  Geneva  would  have  become,  ultimately,  a 
French  possession  and  the  course  of  Reformation  history 
would  have  been  profoundly  altered;  but  Bern  was  now 


I  Le  levain  du  Calvinisnie,  p.  34.  Compare  Kampschulte,  i.  90, 
169;  Memoires  et  doc.  pub.  per  VAcademie  Salesienne,  xiv.  175  (1891); 
Foster  remarks,  op.  cit.,  p.  223,  "on  this  point  there  is  substantial 
agreement  between  Catholic  and  Protestant  historians." 

3 1. 171. 


176  John  Calvin 

thoroughly  frightened  at  the  prospect.     To  have  French 
influence  established  at  Geneva  would  be  to  lose  all 
Bern  had  hoped.     On  January  16,  1536,  Bern,  there- 
fore, suddenly  ended  its  halting  policy  and  declared 
war  against  the  Duke  of  Savoy.    The  Bernese  army 
met  no  serious  resistance.     It  pillaged  the  country  of 
Geneva's  enemies  almost  to  the  gates  of  the  city,  drove 
out   the   Catholic  peasants  from   the   country  round- 
about, and  burned  hostile  castles.     In  February,  it  was 
in  Geneva.     In  March,  it  completed  the  conquest  of 
the  Savoyard  territories  bordering  on  the  Genevan  lake 
by  the  capture  of  Chillon  and  the  Hberation  of  its  prison- 
ers.   All  effective  resistance  by  the  Duke  of  Savoy  was 
now  rendered  impossible,  for  scarcely  had  the  Bernese 
army  done  its  work  when  he  was  independently  at- 
tacked   in    another   direction    by    the    overwhelming 
power  of  France.     Geneva  was  suddenly  freed  from  a 
peril  which  had  been  the  dread  of  years.     Yet  it  was  in 
great  danger  of  losing  its  newly  acquired  freedom  by 
reason  of  the  claims  of  its  ungenerous  ally.     On  Febru- 
ary 5,  1536,  the  Bernese  commanders  demanded  the 
rights  over  the  city  which  had  once  been  exercised  by  the 
bishop  and  the  vicedominus.     That  would  have  made 
Bern  the  real  master.     The  syndics  and  councils  re- 
fused with  spirit.     Geneva  would  not  forfeit  its  hard- 
won  Hberties;    and,  at  last,  on  August  7,  1536,  Bern 
consented  to  a  treaty  by  which  Geneva  retained  all 
disputed    rights    lately  enjoyed    by   the    bishop    and 
duke,  and  held  the  lands  once  belonging  to  the  epis- 
copal see,  its  chapter,  and  the  priory  of  Saint- Victor. 
The  Genevan  territories  thus  embraced  not  merely  the 


Geneva  till  Calvin's  Coming-      177 

city,  but  some  twenty-eight  adjacent  villages  ruled  by 
officers  appointed  by  the  Little  Council.' 

The  rejection  of  the  authority  of  the  bishop  and  the 
suspension  of  the  mass  left  the  ecclesiastical  adminis- 
tration of  Geneva  completely  unsettled.  But  the  citi- 
zens of  Geneva  evidently  regarded  themselves  as  a 
Church;  and  the  city  government  at  once  showed 
its  determination  to  succeed  the  deposed  ecclesiasti- 
cal authority  in  the  moral  and  religious  control  of 
the  city.  In  large  measure  it  stepped  into  the 
bishop's  place.  In  September,  October,  and  Novem- 
ber, 1535,  the  Council  of  Two  Hundred  and  the 
General  Assembly  used  part  of  the  monastic  and 
ecclesiastical  property  to  reform  the  older  hospitals, 
establishing  a  large  refuge  for  the  sick  in  the  former 
nunnery  of  the  Clarissines,  and  an  asylum  for  beg- 
gars, whose  solicitation  of  alms  was  now  forbidden. 
The  prisons  were  unified.  Early  in  April  of  the  next 
year,  under  Farel's  insistent  urgency,  preachers  were 
sent  to  the  outlying  villages,  the  mass  forbidden  in 
them,  and  their  inhabitants  ordered  to  attend  the  newly 
established  sermons.''  The  day  following  this  vote 
the  Little  Council  showed  its  growing  sense  of  its  own 
ecclesiastical  authority  by  declaring  that  it  held  as  ab- 
solved the  excommunicated  parishioners  of  the  village 
of  Thiez.3  The  government  assumed  no  less  vigor- 
ous control  over  the  moral  status  of  the  city  and  its  de- 
pendent territory.     Even  before  the  Reformation,  when 


»  Foster,  op.  cit.,  pp.  228,  229,  where  the  literature  is  given. 
^  Registres  du  Coiiseil,  Opera,  xxi.   198;    Foster,  op.  cit.,  p.  227. 
3  Herminjard,  iv.  26;   Foster,  p.  227. 


1^8  John  Calvin 

episcopal  power  was  recognised,  the  councils  had  ex- 
ercised the  right  to  regulate  games,  dances,  and  sing- 
ing; '  and  now,  by  a  vote  of  February  28,  1536,  the 
Council  of  Two  Hundred  issued  a  series  of  prohibi- 
tions, soon  placarded  throughout  Geneva,  forbidding 
blasphemy,  oaths,  card  playing,  and  strictly  regulating 
the  sale  of  intoxicants  and  the  reception  of  strangers 
into  taverns.  Brides  were  soon  after  ordered  to  cover 
their  heads.  In  June,  presence  at  the  sermon  was  re- 
quired under  penalty  of  a  fine,  and  the  recognition  of 
any  festival  save  Sunday  prohibited.  The  same  month 
a  citizen  who  had  had  his  child  baptized  by  a  priest 
was  ordered  banished;  and,  in  July,  Jean  Balard,  once 
a  syndic,  and  a  man  of  peaceable  disposition,  was  sum_- 
moned  before  the  Council,  and,  because  conscientiously 
unwilling  to  listen  to  the  new  preaching,  was  given  ten 
days  to  conform  or  leave  the  city.^  It  is  evident  that 
governmental  regulation  of  faith  and  conduct  at  Ge- 
neva did  not  begin  with  Calvin.  It  was  an  inheritance 
in  part  from  mediaeval  functions  of  the  city  councils, 
in  part  from  the  episcopal  authority  to  which  those 
councils  regarded  themselves  as  having  succeeded. 

While  the  government  of  Geneva  was  far  from  a  full 
democracy,  most  of  its  affairs  being  managed  by  the 
largely  aristocratic  and   close  knit  councils,^  the  full 


^  Foster,  p.  231,  gives  a  series  of  enactments  from  1481  to  1530; 
see  also  Doumergue,  iii.  432-436. 

*  Registres  du  Conseil,  nxx.  32;    Opera,  xxi.  203. 

3  Foster,  op.  cit.,  p.  234-236,  has  pointed  out  that  of  the  Little  Council 
only  five  were  elected  by  the  General  Assembly  in  any  one  year ;  viz. 
the  fo\ir  syndics  and  the  treasurer.  The  syndics  of  the  previous  year 
remained  members  of  the  Little  Council,  and  their  sixteen  associates 


Geneva  till  Calvin's  Coming      179 

acceptance  of  Protestantism  seemed  a  matter  of  so  much 
moment  as  to  require  the  General  Assembly  of  the  citi- 
zens. Urged  by  Farcl,  such  a  meeting  gathered,  on  the 
call  of  the  Little  Council  and  of  the  Council  of  Two 
Hundred,  on  Sunday,  May  21,  1536,  at  the  sound  of 
the  bell  and  trumpet.  The  citizens  of  Geneva  thus 
met,  led  by  Claude  Savoye,  the  first  syndic,  now  voted, 
without  expressed  dissent,  their  "desire  to  live  in  this 
holy  evangelical  law  and  Word  of  God,  as  it  has  been 
announced  to  us,  desiring  to  abandon  all  masses,  images, 
idols,  and  all  that  which  may  pertain  thereto."  ^  Those 
entitled  to  express  an  opinion  in  the  Assembly  may  have 
numbered  from  a  thousand  to  fifteen  hundred  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Geneva;  and  this  action  undoubtedly 
voiced  the  conviction  which  the  opposition  of  the 
bishop  and  the  long  political  struggle  in  which  Bern 
had  played  so  significant  a  role,  as  well  as  the  labours 


were  chosen  annually  by  the  Council  of  Two  Hundred.  The  Two 
Hundred,  composed  of  the  Little  Council  and  175  others,  were  chosen 
annually  after  1530,  by  the  Little  Council.  Elections  of  syndics  by  the 
General  Assembly  occurred  usually  on  the  first  Sunday  in  February; 
on  the  day  after,  the  Little  Council  was  chosen,  and  on  Tuesday  the 
Two  Hundred.  The  syndics  and  Little  Council  were  the  legislative 
body  and  the  supreme  court  in  all  ordinary  cases.  In  serious  cases  of 
public  policy  the  Two  Hundred  were  called  in,  and  they  also  had  the 
right  of  pardon.  The  General  Assembly  chose  the  syndics  annually 
and  treasurer  triennially;  and  also  elected,  from  1529  on,  five  judges, — 
a  lieutenant  of  justice  and  four  audiieurs, — who  constituted  the  lower 
civil  and  criminal  court.  These  judges  were  elected  annually  in  No- 
vember. The  assent  of  the  General  Assembly  was  also  needful  in  very 
important  decisions,  like  the  one  to  be  described,  but  Geneva  was  only 
remotely  a  democracy  in  all  ordinary  matters  of  civic  policy,  though 
choosing  her  chief  officers  in  democratic  fashion. 

I  Registres  du  Conseil,  xxix.  ii2j  Opera,  xxi.  201;    EngUsh  tr.,  Foster, 
op.  cil.,  p.  235. 


i8o  John  Calvin 

of  Farel,  Froment,  and  Viret,  had  forced  upon  them, 
that  the  only  path  of  municipal  safety  lay  in  adhesion 
to  the  Protestant  cause. 

It  was  not  this  vote  alone,  however,  that  made  this 
meeting  of  the  General  Assembly  of  Genevan  citizens 
significant.  Two  days  before,  the  Two  Hundred,  at 
the  advice  of  the  Little  Council,  had  chosen  FarePs 
friend,  Antoine  Saunier,  head  of  the  ''great  school,"  at 
a  salary  of  one  hundred  gold  ecus^  and  associated  with 
him  two  "bachelors,"  as  assistants  in  instruction.  The 
General  Assembly  now  voted  that  the  education  of  the 
poor  should  be  free,  ''and  that  every  one  be  bound  to 
send  his  children  to  the  school  and  have  them  learn."  ^ 
Universal  popular  education  at  Geneva  was  thus  estab- 
lished, largely  through  Farel's  influence,  before  Cal- 
vin's arrival,  and  a  main  feature  of  Genevan  discipline 
was  thus  early  inaugurated. 

But,  in  spite  of  all  that  had  been  done,  only  a  begin- 
ning had  been  made,  if  Geneva  was  to  become  the 
Protestant  city  that  Farel  wished,  or  even  if  its  future 
Protestantism  was  to  be  secured.  As  matters  were 
going,  the  utmost  that  could  be  expected  was  that 
Geneva  would  develop  along  the  lines  of  state-con- 
trolled ecclesiasticism  according  to  the  pattern  already 
established  in  Bern  and  Zurich.  Though  its  services 
doubtless  approximated  to  the  form  which  Farel  had 
put  forth,  several  years  before,  in  his  Maniere  et 
j  as  son  quon  tient  en  haillant  le  sainct  Baptesme,  etc.,^ 

1  RegistreSy  Ibid.;  Opera,  xxi.  200-202;  Foster,  Ibid.  There  had 
been  a  municipal  school  since  February  28,  1428. 

2  Printed  in  1533,  though  written  earlier,  perhaps  nearly  a  decade; 
see  J.  G.  Baum,  Le  sommaire  de  Guillaume  Farel,  Geneva,  1867,  p.  vi. 


Geneva  till  Calvin's  Coming      i8i 

the  Genevan  Church  lacked  all  organisation,  save 
that  the  city  government  favoured  Protestantism, 
supported  Protestant  preachers,  and  exercised  a  kind 
of  ecclesiastical  control  over  Genevan  territories.  It 
had  no  creed,  save  the  determination  of  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  to  live  according  to  "the  Word  of 
God,"  no  separate  discipline,  no  existence  independent 
of  the  will  of  the  civil  rulers  of  the  turbulent  city/ 
Years  later,  in  his  farewell  address,  Calvin  said  with 
substantial  truth  regarding  its  state  at  his  coming:  ''In 
this  Church  there  was  well-nigh  nothing.  There  was 
preaching,  and  that  is  all.  ...  All  was  in  confusion."  ^ 
There  is  no  proof  that  Farel  was  not  well  content  with 
the  direction  toward  state  control  which  the  develop- 
ment had  thus  far  taken,  largely  under  his  fiery  dis- 
courses; but  he  doubtless  felt  that  his  abiUties  to  plan 
were  inadequate  to  the  needs  of  the  situation.  The 
Papacy  and  the  ancient  worship  had  been  rejected; 
but  an  architect  was  needed  if  a  new  structure  of  solid- 
ity and  strength  was  to  take  the  place  of  the  old.  It  is 
proof  of  Farel's  insight  into  character,  no  less  than  of 
his  personal  unselfishness,  that  he  beUeved  that  the 
leader  Geneva  required  was  to  be  found  in  the  youth- 
ful author  of  the  Institutes  whom  the  chances  of  war, 
or,  as  he  would  have  more  reUgiously  declared.  Divine 
Providence,  had  unexpectedly  sent  to  the  city. 


Compare  Foster,  Ibid.,  pp.  235,  236. 
Opera,  ix.  891. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
calvin's  early  work  at  geneva 

CALVIN'S  sudden  determination,  reached  in  July, 
1536,  under  the  potent  exhortation  of  Farel,  to 
make  Geneva  his  home,  was  followed  by  a  brief  busi- 
ness trip  to  Basel.  His  return  to  Geneva,  about  the 
middle  of  August,  saw  him  the  \dctim  of  a  sharp  and 
painful  ilhiess,^  so  he  can  hardly  have  begun  work  be- 
fore the  end  of  the  month.  That  inauguration  was 
most  informal.  He  did  not  become  one  of  the  preachers 
till  nearly  or  quite  a  year  later.^  Under  Farel's  au- 
spices, he  began  the  exposition  of  the  Pauline  epistles  in 
the  Church  of  Saint- Pierre,  and  it  was  as  ''Professor  of 
Sacred  Letters  in  the  Church  of  Geneva"  that  he  pub- 
lished at  Basel,  in  January,  1537,  the  two  brief  tracts 
on  the  proper  attitude  of  Evangelical  believers  toward 
Roman  worship  and  offices  of  which  mention  has  al- 
ready been  made  as  having  probably  been  written  dur- 
ing his  Italian  journey.^     Farel,  anxious  that  his  friend 


^  Calvin's  letter  to  Daniel,  Herminjard,  iv.  87. 

^  Calvin  said  in  his  letter  to  Sadoleto  (1539),  "I  discharged  the  duties 
first  of  a  teacher,  then  of  a  pastor,"  Opera,  v.  386.  Colladon  stated 
that  "a  little  after,  he  was  also  chosen  pastor,"  Ibid.,  xxi.  58.  But  as 
late  as  August  13, 1537,  the  Council  of  Bern  distinguished  between  Farel, 
"preacher,"  and  Calvin,  "reader  in  Holy  Scripture,"  Herminjard,  iv. 
276.  See  also  C.  A.  Cornelius,  Historische  Arbeiten,  Leipzig,  1899, 
p.  129,  of  which  I  have  made  much  use  in  this  chapter. 

5  Opera,  v.  233.    Ante,  p.  154. 

182 


[1536-1538]    Early  Work  at  Geneva  183 

should  have  an  adequate  hvehhood,  appealed  in  Cal- 
vin's behalf  to  the  Little  Council  on  September  5,  1536; 
but  so  slight  an  impression  had  the  new-comer  then 
made  on  the  city  as  a  whole  that  the  Secretary,  in  evi- 
dent ignorance  of  Calvin's  name,  recorded  the  request 
as  having  been  made  in  behalf  of  ''that  Frenchman." 
It  was  not  till  February  13th  following  that  a  modest 
grant  was  voted. ^ 

From  the  first,  however,  Calvin  exercised  a  profound 
influence  over  Farel,  and  his  weight  was  soon  felt  in 
all  the  reHgious  interests  of  Geneva.  When  the  Col- 
loquial or  meetings  of  the  ministers  of  Geneva  and 
vicinity,  were  established  in  November,  1536,  Calvin 
became  a  member,  and  in  their  name  he  spoke  the  ad- 
monition to  Denis  Lambert,  the  unsatisfactory  pastor 
at  Veigy,  in  the  opening  days  of  the  following  month.'' 
Even  earlier,  services  of  a  more  public  character  had 
brought  Calvin  into  notice.  The  victorious  forces  of 
Bern  had  entered  Lausanne,  the  chief  city  of  Vaud, 
where  Viret  was  even  then  advocating  the  Evangelical 
cause,  in  March,  1536.  In  spite  of  the  prohibition  of 
the  nominal  overlord,  the  Emperor  Charles  V.,  that 
aggressively  Protestant  canton  had  determined  to  sup- 
port the  newer  worship  in  Vaud;  and,  as  a  means  to 
that  end,  appointed  a  public  disputation  at  Lausanne 
for  October  first.  Thither  Calvin  went  with  Farel, 
and,  though  his  part  was  relatively  modest  compared 
with  the  work  of  his  elder  companion  and  that  of  Viret, 
in  the  eight  days'  session  that  ensued  he  gained  dis- 


^  Registres  du  Conseil,  xxx.  51,  173;    Opera,  xxi.  204,  208. 
"  Herminjard,  iv.  107,  123;    Cornelius,  p.  129. 


i84  John  Calvin  [1536- 

tinction  by  the  learning  and  skill  with  which,  fortified 
by  abundant  citations  from  the  Fathers,  he  attacked 
the  doctrine  of  the  physical  presence  of  Christ  in  the 
Supper  and  thus  contributed  to  the  overthrow  of  the 
feebly  championed  Roman  party.'  From  Lausanne 
Calvin  went  to  Bern,  and  was  present  from  October 
1 6th  to  1 8th  at  a  synod  which  considered  inconclusively 
the  recently  drafted  Wittenberg  Form  of  Concord, 
which  Bucer  was  urging  on  the  Swiss  as  a  means  of 
uniting  all  the  forces  of  Protestantism.  Calvin  was 
thus  rapidly  making  the  acquaintance  of  the  Protes- 
tant leaders  of  southern  and  central  Switzerland. 
Those  of  the  north  and  of  the  adjacent  Rhine  valley 
he  largely  knew  already. 

Farel's  expectation  was  that  Calvin  would  be  a 
force  in  the  organisation  of  the  Genevan  Church,  and 
in  this  work  the  author  of  the  Institutes  immediately 
took  the  leadership,  though  popular  judgment  still  con- 
tinued to  regard  Farel  as  chief  among  the  churchly 
guides  of  Geneva.  The  result  of  Calvin's  work  was 
the  speedy  preparation  of  Articles  directive  of  Church 
government,  of  a  Catechism  for  Christian  instruction, 
and  of  a  Confession  of  Faith  for  the  whole  Genevan 
community,— the  latter  possibly  by  Farel  though  ex- 
pressing Calvin's  thoughts.  In  them  Calvin  outlined 
not  only  the  principles  which  had  found  expression  in 
the  Institutes,  but  many  of  the  more  essential  features 
of  his  system  of  government  as  it  was  ultimately  to 
develop. 

Before  Calvin's  coming,  on  May  24,  1536,  the  Coun- 


I  Opera,  ix.  877-884;  Doumergue,  ii.  180-218. 


TOWERS  OF  THE  CATHEDRAL  '^SAINT   PIERRe)  AT  GENEVA. 


1538]  Early  Work  at  Geneva  185 

cil  hud  ordered  that  Articles  '  be  drafted  to  secure  the 
''unity  of  the  State."  In  compliance,  on  November 
loth,  following,  Farel  laid  before  the  civil  authorities 
certain  propositions  not  now  definitely  known,  which 
met  with  prompt  approval.^  Whether  the  articles  then 
presented  were  those  drafted  by  Calvin  which  have 
come  down  to  us  as  of  January-,  1537,^  or  were,  as  seems 
more  probable,^  simply  anti-Roman  ordinances,  is  im- 
possible absolutely  to  determine.  If  the  latter  be  the 
case,  however,  as  the  writer  beheves,  then  the  Articles 
of  January,  1537,  were  not  only  entirely  distinct  from 
those  of  the  previous  November,  but  their  presentation 
was  an  act  unsolicited  by  the  city  government,  and  one 
illustrative  not  merely  of  Calvin's  organising  abiUties, 
but  of  his  prompt  and  conscientious  determination  to 
make  Geneva  what  he  would  have  it.  For,  though  the 
records  of  the  Little  Council  describe  the  Articles  read 
before  it  on  January  16,  1537,  as  "given  by  M^G. 
Farel  and  the  other  preachers,"  ^  the  hand  of  Calvin  and 
the  famihar  thoughts  and  even  language  of  the  Insii- 
tutes  are  unmistakable.  Calvin  had  won  the  support  of 
his  colleagues,  he  would  win  the  approval  of  the  gov- 
ernment for  this  first  programme  for  the  construction 
of  a  Genevan  Church  as  he  desired  that  Church  to  be. 


'  On  this  general  subject  see  A.  Rilliet  and  T.  Dufour,  Le  cate- 
chisme  franfais  de  Calvin,  Geneva,  1878,  pp.  x-xxxiii;  Cornelius,  pp. 
131-137;   Doumergue,  ii.  219-227. 

^  Registres  du  Conseil,  xxx.  7,  87. 

3  E.g.  Rilliet,  Dufour,  Doumergue. 

'♦  Cornelius. 

5  XXX.  151;  Opera,  xxi.  206.  The  full  text  of  the  Articles  may 
be  found  in  Opera,  xa.  5-14;  and  Henninjard,  iv.  155-166. 


i86  John  Calvin  [1536- 

The  Articles  begin  with  a  declaration  that  good 
churchly  order  demands  the  frequent  and  dignified  ob- 
servance of  the  Lord's  Supper.  Calvin's  prime  thought 
is  evidently  religious.  As  in  the  first  edition  of  the 
Institutes^  he  advocates  its  observance  at  least  every 
Sunday,  yet  "because  the  weakness  of  the  people  is 
such  that  there  is  danger  that  this  holy  and  most  ex- 
cellent mystery  may  be  despised  if  so  often  celebrated," 
he  recommends  its  maintenance,  for  the  present, 
once  a  month.'  The  dignity  of  this  central  feature  of 
worship  demands  the  exclusion  of  those  of  unworthy 
life  and  contemptuous  conduct;  and  this  consideration 
brings  Calvin  to  the  most  significant  element  of  the 
Articles, — their  provision  for  church  discipline.  *'For 
this  reason  our  Lord  has  established  in  his  Church  the 
correction  and  discipline  of  excommunication." 

The  Articles  then  propose  a  systematic  establishment 
of  discipline,  which  had  evidently  fallen  out  of  all  use 
except  as  enforced  by  such  sumptuary  and  moral  enact- 
ments of  the  civil  authorities  as  have  already  been 
noted  :^  — 

To  accomplish  this  we  have  decided  to  ask  of  you  [the 
government]  that  your  pleasure  may  be  to  appoint  and 
choose  certain  persons  of  upright  life  and  good  reputation 
among  all  the  faithful,  likewise  of  firmness  and  not  easily 
corruptible,  who  being  divided  and  distributed  in  all  the 
quarters  of  the  city,  shall  have  an  eye  to  the  life  and  conduct  of 
each  one;  and  if  they  see  any  notable  fault  to  censure  in  any 
person  they  shall  communicate  with  some  one  of  the  minis- 

I  Ante,  p.  142;  Opera,  xa.  7,  8. 
a  Opera,  xa.  10,  11. 


1538]  Early  Work  at  Geneva  187 

ters  to  admonish  the  one  in  fault  and  exhort  liim  fraternally 
to  reform.  And  if  it  ap]:)ears  that  such  remonstrances  are 
of  no  avail,  he  shall  be  informed  that  his  obstinacy  will  be 
reported  to  the  Church.  And  if  he  confesses,  there  is  al- 
ready a  great  profit  in  this  discipline.  But  if  he  will  not 
hear,  it  will  be  time  for  the  minister,  being  informed  by 
those  who  have  this  charge,  to  declare  publicly  in  the  as- 
sembly the  effort  which  has  been  made  to  bring  him  to 
amendment  and  how  all  has  been  of  no  avail.  When  it  is 
apparent  that  he  wishes  to  persevere  in  hardness  of  heart, 
then  it  will  be  time  to  excommunicate  him,  that  is  to  say, 
he  shall  be  held  as  rejected  from  the  company  of  Christians. 
.  .  .  Such  seems  to  us  a  good  way  to  re-establish  excommu- 
nication in  our  Church  and  to  maintain  it  in  its  entirety; 
and  beyond  this  admonition  the  Church  cannot  go.  But 
if  there  are  those  of  such  insolence  and  so  abandoned  to  all 
wickedness  that  they  only  laugh  at  being  excommunicated 
and  do  not  concern  themselves  about  living  and  dying  in 
such  exclusion,  it  will  be  for  you  to  judge  whether  you 
will  suffer  such  conduct  long  to  continue  and  leave  unpun- 
ished such  contempt  and  such  mockery  of  God  and  of  His 
Gospel. 

With  this  recommendation  was  coupled  another  of 
well-nigh  equal  importance :  ^  — 

It  is  certain  that  there  is  no  greater  division  than  concern- 
ing faith;  and  if  those  who  agree  in  faith  with  us  ought, 
nevertheless,  to  be  excommunicated  by  reason  of  their  ill 
deeds,  with  much  more  reason  they  ought  not  to  be  en- 
dured in  the  Church  who  are  wholly  contrary  to  us  in  relig- 
ion.    The  remedy  that  we  have  thought  of  for  this  situation 


'  Opera,  xa.   p.  ii. 


i88  John  Calvin  [1536- 

is  to  ask  you  that  all  the  inhabitants  of  your  city  shall  make 
confession  and  give  account  of  their  faith,  so  that  it  may 
be  understood  who  of  them  agree  with  the  Gospel,  and  who 
love  better  to  be  of  the  kingdom  of  the  Pope  than  of  the 
kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  would  therefore  be  an  act  be- 
coming Christian  magistrates  if  you,  Gendemen  of  the 
Council,  each  one  for  himself,  would  make  confession  in 
your  council  by  which  it  may  be  understood  that  the  doc- 
trine of  your  faith  is  truly  that  whereby  all  the  faithful  are 
united  in  one  Church.  For  by  your  example  you  would 
show  what  each  one  should  do  in  imitation  of  you;  and 
afterwards  you  should  appoint  certain  of  your  body,  who, 
being  joined  with  some  minister,  should  require  each  per- 
son to  do  the  same.  This  should  be  for  this  time  only, 
since  it  cannot  yet  be  seen  what  doctrine  each  person  holds, 
which  is  the  right  beginning  of  a  Church. 

Besides  this  sifting  process  by  which  those  really  in 
sympathy  with  the  Evangelical  cause  could  be  distin- 
guished among  the  inhabitants  of  Geneva,  and  the 
maintenance  of  the  purity  of  the  Charch  by  discipline, 
Calvin  and  his  associates  proposed  the  training  of  the 
young  in  reHgious  truth  as  a  third  important  means  of 
securing  the  spiritual  welfare  of  the  city :  ^ — 

There  should  be  a  brief  and  easy  outline  of  the  Christian 
faith,  which  should  be  taught  to  all  children,  and  at  certain 
seasons  of  the  year  they  should  come  before  the  ministers 
to  be  questioned  and  examined,  and  to  receive  more  ample 
explication  according  as  there  shall  be  need  in  proportion 
to  the  capacity  of  each,  until  they  are  approved  as  suf- 
ficiently instructed.     But  may  your  pleasure  be  to  order 


^  Opera,  xa.  p.  13. 


1538]  Early  Work  at  Geneva  189 

parents  to  exercise  care  and  diligence  that  their  children 
learn  this  outline  and  ])resent  themselves  to  the  ministers 
at  the  time  appointed. 

Here,  then,  was  a  programme  of  far-reaching  signifi- 
cance, and  of  the  utmost  boldness  as  applied  to  a  city 
like  Geneva.  All  inhabitants  were  to  be  sifted  by  a 
creed  test,  which  in  the  conditions  of  sixteenth  century 
life  meant  something  different  from  such  a  test  to-day. 
It  was  almost  impossible  to  be  non-partisan  between 
Protestantism  and  Romanism,  and  Calvin  intended 
that  it  should  be  absolutely  impossible.  Each  inhabi- 
tant must  choose  one  side  or  the  other  with  all  its  con- 
sequences. He  must  live  ''according  to  the  Gospel," 
or  according  to  the  Papacy.  But  all  inhabitants  who 
accepted  the  Evangelical  side,  were,  by  right  of  their 
acceptance,  as  well  as  of  their  baptism,  members  of  the 
Genevan  Church.  Calvin  does  not  say  what  shall  be 
done  with  inhabitants  who  refuse  Protestantism.  He 
did  not  need  to  say.  The  Genevan  authorities  had 
already  taken  the  position,  in  the  month  of  Calvin's 
arrival,  and  without  influence  from  him,  that  they  must 
leave  the  city.^ 

This  Church  thus  established  must  be  maintained 
in  purity  not  merely  by  education,  but  by  disciphne; 
and  this  discipline  was  to  be  applied  not,  as  in  most 
American  religious  bodies,  to  that  relatively  small  por- 
tion of  the  population  who  have  made  a  profession  of 
Christian  experience  and  have  "joined  a  church,"  but 
to  all  inhabitants  who  professed  adherence  to  the  Evan- 


^  Case  of  Jean  Balard,  July  24,  1536,  ante,  p.  178. 


igo  John  Calvin  [1536- 

gelical  side,  that  is  to  all  dwellers  in  Geneva  after  the 
sifting  process  should  be  completed.  There  was  noth- 
ing novel  in  the  idea  of  a  strict  watch  by  the  civil  gov- 
ernment over  the  manners  and  morals  of  the  citizens. 
Many  regulations  interfering  with  their  conduct  had 
been  made  before  Calvin  came,  even  in  Roman  days, 
nor  were  such  supervisions  peculiar  in  any  way  to  Ge- 
neva.^ Calvin's  contribution  was  twofold,  however. 
He  would  secure  the  appointment  of  lay  inspectors,  who 
should  work  in  conjunction  with  the  ministry, — a  real 
Consistory,  if  still  in  undeveloped  form;  and,  even 
more  important,  he  would  make  the  work  of  the  in- 
spectors a  function  of  the  Church,  not  of  the  State. 
To  the  point  of  excommunication,  which  he  deemed 
the  limit  of  spiritual  functions,  these  inspectors  and  the 
ministers,  though  appointed  by  the  government,  should 
act  as  spiritual,  not  as  civil,  officers.  The  independent 
self-government  of  the  Church  was  thus  Calvin's  aim. 
That  self-government  was  far  from  complete  as  pre- 
sented in  these  Articles;  but  it  was  real.  When  disci- 
pline had  done  its  utmost,  and  not  till  then,  was  the 
State  to  exercise  its  authority  over  the  hopelessly  in- 
corrigible. The  chief  peculiarity  of  Calvin's  recommen- 
dation is  not  therefore  its  regulation  of  private  conduct, 
— that  existed  before  his  work  was  begun, — but  this 
provision  for  an  independent  exercise  of  ecclesiastical 
discipline  in  a  Church  which  was  largely  the  creature 
of  the  State  and  over  which  the  State  exercised  control. 
It  was  a  first  step  toward  the  restoration,  in  a  new  and 
Protestant  form,  of  that  ancient  ecclesiastical  indepen- 


'  Ante,  p.  178;  see  also  Foster,  p.  231;  Doumergue,  ii.  223,  224. 


T538]  Early  Work  at  Geneva  191 

dencc  which  the  Rcformalion  liad  almost  universally 
sacrificed  to  its  need  of  State  support.  Calvin's  mo- 
tive in  thus  asserting  the  principle  of  independent  dis- 
cipline was  primarily  pastoral,  not  theoretical,  and  grew 
out  of  his  conception  of  the  care  of  souls.  As  he  de- 
clared, in  1538,  in  his  Preface  to  the  Genevan  Cate- 
chism :  ^ — 

Whatever  others  may  think,  we  certainly  do  not  regard 
our  office  as  bound  in  so  narrow  limits  that  when  the  sermon 
is  delivered  we  may  rest  as  if  our  task  were  done.  They 
whose  blood  will  be  required  of  us,  if  lost  through  our 
slothfulness,  are  to  be  cared  for  much  more  closely  and 
vigilantly. 

It  was  an  independent  discipKne,  aided  by  the  civil 
government  when  discipline  had  done  its  utmost,  that 
there  might  be  a  trained  and  conscientious  Christian 
community, — the  ideal  of  a  Puritan  State, — that  Cal- 
vin planned,  but  to  beheve  that  Geneva  could  become 
such  a  state  required  high  ideahsm,  intense  determina- 
tion to  secure  the  result  which  seemed  logically  desira- 
ble, and  a  persuasive  capacity  to  win  others  to  bis  point 
of  view.  These  qualities  Calvin  now  brought  to  bear 
on  the  Genevan  situation. 

It  detracts  nothing  from  Calvin's  significance  as  an 
ecclesiastical  statesman  that  the  particular  device  by 
which  he  and  his  associates  proposed  to  secure  an  in- 
dependent discipline,  as  presented  in  the  Articles  of 
1537?  was  not  original  with  him.  At  Basel,  with  the 
affairs  of  which  city  Calvin  was  well  acquainted,  three 


*  opera,  v.  319;   Cornelius,  p.  133. 


192  John  Calvin  [1536- 

men  of  repute  had  been  appointed  for  each  parish  in 
1530, — two  from  the  city  council  and  one  from  the  gen- 
eral body  of  inhabitants, — to  serve  with  the  ministers 
in  the  supervision  of  the  lives  of  their  fellow-citizens. 
This  device  of  (Ecolampadius  was  not  successfully  car- 
ried out.  It  encountered  opposition  at  once.  Zwingli, 
and  his  successor,  Bullinger,  declared  that  excommuni- 
cation was  no  function  of  a  Church  under  pious  civil 
rulers,  but  rather  that  discipline  belonged  to  the  State; 
yet  the  attempt  at  Basel  was  evidently  the  source  of 
Calvin's  plan.^ 

Besides  these  principal  recommendations,  the  Arti- 
cles advised  the  singing  of  the  Psalms  as  a  means  of 
rendering  public  worship  less  cold;  and  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  civil  commission  which  should  judge  mat- 
rimonial questions,  with  the  aid  of  the  ministers,  in 
accordance  with  the  "Word  of  God."  The  Little  Coun- 
cil and  that  of  Two  Hundred  promptly  adopted  the 
Articles,  with  slight  reservations.  The  Lord's  Supper 
w^as  still  to  be  celebrated  but  four  times  yearly,  and 
marriage  questions  were  to  be  determined  by  the  Little 
Council,  though  "after  conference  with  the  preachers 
and  ministers  for  guidance  according  to  the  Word  of 
God";  but  the  plan  which  Farel  and  Calvin  had  pre- 
sented became  the  law  of  Geneva  in  its  essential 
features.^  * 

The  Articles  had  proposed  a  "brief  outline  of  the 
Christian  faith"  as  a  basis  of  instruction  for  children, 


^  Doumergue,  ii.  224-227. 

^  Registres  du  Conseil,  January   16,  1537,  xxx.  151,  152;   Opera,  xxi. 
206,  207. 


1538]  Early  Work  at  Geneva  193 

and  this  Catechism  Calvin  had  cither  prepared  when 
the  Articles  were  presented  or  brought  it  speedily  there- 
after into  readiness,  for  he  was  able  to  exhibit  it  in 
print  in  discussion  at  Lausanne  by  the  17th  of  Feb- 
ruary.' Composed  in  Latin,  it  was  printed  in  French 
translation  as  Instruction  et  confession  de  joy  dont  on 
use  en  PEglise  de  Geneve,  and  was  long  supposed  to  be 
lost  in  this  form,  till  a  copy  of  the  original  edition  was 
discovered  in  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale  at  Paris  in 
1877.^  The  Catechism  itself  is  a  nobly  expressed  and 
transparently  stated  presentation  of  the  Christian  sys- 
tem, as  Calvin  apprehended  it,  in  substantially  the 
same  order  and  with  the  same  emphases  as  in  the  first 
edition  of  the  Institutes.  From  the  point  of  view  of  its 
professed  purpose,  the  instruction  of  children,  it  is  far  too 
long,  elaborate,  and  minute.  It  should  be  remembered 
that  catechism-making,  so  characteristic  of  the  Refor- 
mation age,  was  still  a  novelty.  Luther's  catechisms 
were  only  seven  years  old.  Calvin,  moreover,  had  had 
little  experience  as  a  teacher.  He  would  have  written 
far  otherwise  had  he  taught  the  young.  It  has  been 
well  described  as  a  resume  of  the  Institutes,'^  and,  as 
such,  it  is  a  compact  and  serviceable  creed,  presenting 
the  system  with  the  skill  of  a  master-hand. 


I  Calvin  to  Grynaeus,  Herminjard,  iv.  240. 

^  Printed  with  elaborate  introductions  by  A.  Rilliet  and  T.  Dufour, 
Le  catechisme  }ran(ais,  Geneva,  1878;  see  also  Cornelius,  p.  137; 
Doumergue,  ii.  230,  231.  The  Latin  form  was  prftited  in  1538,  and 
may  be  found  in  Opera,  v.  313-362.  Some  oflScial  adoption  at  Geneva 
must  have  taken  place,  for  the  Latin  edition  is  described  as"communi- 
bus  renatae  nuper  in  EvangeUo  Genevensis  Ecclesiae  suffragiis  recepta." 

3  RilHet,  Ibid.,  p.  xlii. 

13 


194  John  Calvin  [1536- 

With  this  Catechism  in  its  earliest  edition,  and  there- 
fore dating,  at  the  latest,  from  February,  1537,  was 
bound  up  the  Confession  of  Faith,  assent  to  which  the 
Articles  had  recommended  should  be  asked  of  the 
officers  of  the  Genevan  government  and  required  once 
for  all  individually  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  city.  Its 
title  declared  it  to  be  "extracted  from  the  Instruction 
[i.e.  Catechism]  of  which  use  is  made  in  the  Church 
of  the  said  city,"  and  that  "all  burghers,  inhabitants 
of  Geneva,  and  subjects  of  the  country,  are  bound  to 
swear  to  guard  and  hold  to"  it.  The  words  of  this 
brief  creed  of  twenty-one  articles  are  not  improbably 
from  the  pen  of  Farel,"  but  the  order  and  thought  is 
essentially  that  of  the  Catechism.  Whether  its  actual 
writer  or  not,  Calvin  doubtless  regarded  it  as  express- 
ing his  convictions.  Its  most  significant  aspect,  from 
the  point  of  view  of  ecclesiastical  constitution-making, 
is  that  it  would  base  membership  in  the  Genevan 
Church  on  an  individual  and  personal  profession  of 
faith.  ^  Looked  at  from  the  standpoint  of  ecclesias- 
tical politics,  its  chief  importance  is  as  an  endeavour 
to  secure  unity  in  allegiance  to  the  new  Evangelical 
Church  and  the  exclusion  of  all  who  opposed.  But 
the  attempt  to  obtain  the  universal  assent  recommended 
In  the  Articles  was  one  resulting  in  great  difficulties 
tor  the  reformers,  and  their  efforts  were  delayed  by 
internal  and   external  conflicts    at    which    it   will   be 


'  Rilliet,  Opera,  v.  pp.  lii-lviii,  claims  it  for  Calvin;  the  editors  of 
the  Opera,  xxii.  14-18,  ascribe  it  to  Farel.  The  evidence  is  well 
summed  up,  wdth  suspense  of  judgment,  by  Doumergue,  ii.  237-239. 

*  Doumergue,  ii.  236. 


INTERIO.^  OF  THE  CATHE[7RAL  (SAINT  PIERRE)  WHERE  CALVIN   PREACHED 
AND  TAUGHT. 


1538]  Early  Work  at  Geneva  195 

well  to  glance  before  examining  the  fate  of  the  Con- 
fession. 

While  the  Articles,  the  Catechism,  and  the  Confession 
were  in  preparation,  Farel  and  Calvin  were  suddenly 
and  savagely  attacked  by  a  fellow-Protestant  as  here- 
tics, and  heretics  of  what  seemed  to  the  Reformation 
age  the  blackest  dye,  deniers  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trin- 
ity. The  accusation  not  merely  aroused  in  Calvin  a 
strong  sense  of  resentment  because  it  was  wholly  unde- 
served, but,  in  so  far  as  it  was  believed,  it  threatened 
not  merely  Farel  and  Calvin's  whole  position  at  Geneva, 
but  all  influence  anywhere.  It  was  peculiarly  galling, 
moreover,  to  one  who  felt  profoundly  convinced,  as 
Calvin  did,  that  he  was  above  all  else  Biblical  and 
orthodox,  —  an  interpreter  of  the  very  ''Word  of 
God," —  and  it  resulted  in  his  first  great  personal 
antagonism. 

Pierre  Caroli,^  who  brought  this  accusation,  was, 
like  Calvin,  a  native  of  northern  France,  and,  like  him, 
a  student  at  the  University  of  Paris,  where  he  had 
achieved  distinction.  Attracted  by  the  semi-Protest- 
antism of  the  school  of  Le  Fevre,  he  laboured  under 
Brifonnet  in  his  native  region,  expounded  the  Script- 
ures at  Paris,  and  obtained  an  ecclesiastical  living  at 
Alen$:on.  Vain,  disputatious,  of  rather  easy  morals, 
he  had  no  considerable  fixity  of  belief,  and  was  to  pass 


^  The  fullest  treatment  of  this  episode  is  that  of  Eduard  Bahler, 
PetrusCaroii  und Johannes  Ca/vin,  in  the  Jahrbuch  fiir  Schweizerische 
Geschichte,  xxix.  41-167  (1904);  see  also  Kampschulte,  i.  295-298; 
Doumergue,  ii.  252-268.  Calvin  told  his  side  of  the  story  in  1545  in  his 
Pro  G.  Farello  et  collegis  ejus  adversus  Petri  Caroli  calumnias  De/ensio, 
Opera,  vii.  289-340. 


196  John  Calvin  [1536- 

repeatedly  from  one  communion  to  the  other,  and  to 
die  in  that  of  Rome.  The  tumult  occasioned  by  the 
Placards  compelled  his  flight  to  Geneva  in  1535,  where 
he  fell  out  with  Farel  and  Viret,  and  seems  to  have  be- 
come thoroughly  hostile  to  them.  Thence  he  went  to 
Basel,  being  there  during  a  part  of  Calvin's  residence, 
and  in  the  spring  of  1536  obtained  a  pastorate  at  Neu- 
chatel.  He  therefore  knew  the  Genevan  reformers 
well.  Through  influence  with  the  government  of  Bern 
he  was  appointed  chief-pastor  at  Lausanne  in  Novem- 
ber after  the  establishment  of  Protestantism  in  that  city, 
and  given  a  handsome  income,  to  the  relative  discredit 
of  Viret,  to  whom  much  of  the  success  of  the  Evangelical 
cause  in  that  city  had  been  due.  This  discrimination 
in  favour  of  one  whom  they  deemed  inferior  to  Viret 
in  character  and  devotion  to  the  Reformed  faith  aroused 
the  protests  of  the  Genevan  ministers; '  and  their  feel- 
ings were  intensified,  as  may  be  imagined,  when  Caroli 
began  to  advocate  prayers  for  the  dead,  not  indeed  as 
abridging  purgatorial  sufferings, — he  was  then  too 
much  of  a  Protestant  for  that, — but  as  procuring  an 
earlier  resurrection.  In  Caroli  on  the  one  side  and 
Farel  and  Calvin  on  the  other,  the  divergence  clearly 
appears  which  had  grown  up  between  the  semi- Protest- 
antism of  the  type  of  Le  Fevre  and  of  many  of 
Calvin's  early  associates  and  the  logical,  convinced, 
thorough-going  Protestantism  which  Calvin  had 
attained.  The  same  division,  under  very  different 
circumstances,  was  soon  to  cost  CaMn  the  companion- 
ship of  du  Tillet,  whose  friendship  had   been  so  valu- 

'  Herminjard,  iv.  107,  109. 


1538]  Early  Work  at  Geneva  197 

able  in  his  own  days  of  spiritual  struggle'  Yet  the 
weakness  of  French  Protestantism  had  been  the  large 
number  of  its  adherents  who  had  but  partially  broken 
with  the  ancient  system.  Its  strength,  however  much 
our  natural  sympathy  is  drawn  toward  these  men  who 
did  not  see  clearly,  was  unmistakably  in  the  robuster 
type  of  which  Calvin  was  the  embodiment. 

On  news  of  this  development  in  Caroli's  teaching, 
Calvin  went  to  Viret's  aid  at  Lausanne,  and  the  matter 
was  brought  before  the  commissioners  of  Bern,  then  in 
the  city,  on  February  17,  1537.^  Here  Caroli  turned 
the  tables  on  his  critics  by  accusing  them  of  Arianism. 
Calvin  presented  in  defence  the  appropriate  section 
from  the  new  Genevan  Catechism,  when,  in  a  dramatic 
scene,  Caroli  called  on  his  opponents  to  leave  out  of 
discussion  the  creed  then  hardly  dry  from  the  press, 
and  join  him  in  assent  to  the  three  ancient  historic 
symbols  of  the  Church.^  Calvin  rejected  the  demand, 
and  answered:  ''We  swear  in  the  faith  of  the  one  God, 
not  of  Athanasius,  whose  creed  no  true  Church  would 
ever  have  approved."  Here  was,  to  Caroli,  a  seeming 
confirmation  of  his  charges;  and  the  action  of  Calvin 
in  refusing  to  approve  creeds  which  the  Church  had 
long  reverenced,  at  the  very  moment  when  he  was  de- 
manding that  all  inhabitants  of  Geneva  assent  to  the 
Confession  which  he  and  Farel  had  prepared,  is  one 


*  Calvin  to  du  Tillet,  Januarj'  31,  1538,  Herminjard,  iv.  354. 

*  The  best  account  of  the  scene  is  the  letter  of  the  pastors  of  Geneva 
to  those  of  Bern,  written  by  Calvin  within  a  few  days  of  the  event, 
Ibid.,   iv.  183-187. 

3  I.e.  the  Apostles',  the  Nicene,  and  the  Athanasian  Creeds. 


198  John  Calvin  [1536- 

the  apparent  inconsistency  of  which  has  often  been  re- 
marked.^ To  understand  his  attitude  we  must  remem- 
ber the  century  in  which  he  lived,  and  his  convictions 
as  to  the  final  source  of  authority.  To  Calvin  the  new 
Genevan  creed  was  true,  and  therefore  rightfully  to 
be  pressed  on  others,  because  drawn  from  the  "Word 
of  God."  That  ascribed  to  Athanasius  was  not  so  de- 
rived, and  was  therefore  not  so  binding.  And  a  further 
motive  for  Calvin's  rejection  of  the  ancient  symbol 
grew  out  of  his  humanistic  feeling.  Its  want  of  classic 
style,  above  all  its  repetitions,  offended  a  scholarship 
trained  by  the  new  learning  and  the  new  historical 
criticism. "^  To  CaroH  the  ancient  creeds  seemed  a 
precious  heritage  from  the  past.  To  Calvin  they  were 
of  value  only  in  so  far  as  they  reproduced  the  "Word 
of  God."  The  humanistic  reformer  and  the  ecclesiast- 
ical revolutionist  stood  face  to  face  in  conflict. 

CaroU's  charge  of  Arianism  was  baseless,  as  an  ex- 
amination of  Calvin  and  Farel's  writings  readily  shows. 
In  his  Institutes  of  1536  Calvin  had  not  hesitated  to  use 
the  word  "Trinity,"  and  to  describe  the  mode  of  exist- 
ence of  the  Godhead  in  terms  of  historical  theology.^ 
But  while  really  unsupported,  Caroli's  charges  were 
given  a  certain  plausibility  by  the  actions  and  writings 
of  the  Genevan  reformers  and  were  not  improbably  fully 


I  Kampschulte,  i.  296,  297;    compare  Doumergue's  defence,  ii.  266. 

'  Opera,  vii.  315,  316. 

3  E.g.  Institutes,  Opera,  i.  71.  "*I  beKeve  in  the  Holy  Ghost,'  where 
we  confess  that  we  believe  the  Holy  Spirit  to  be  true  God  with  the  Father 
and  the  Son,  the  third  person  of  the  most  holy  Trinity,  consubstantial 
and  coetemal  vAth.  the  Father  and  the  Son,  omnipotent  and  the  Creator 
of  all  things.     For  there  are  three  distinct  persons,  one  essence." 


1538]  Early  Work  at  Geneva 


199 


believed  by  Caroli  himself.  With  the  wish  to  avoid 
technical  theological  terms  in  manuals  for  popular  in- 
struction, Farel  had  omitted  the  word  ''Trinity"  from 
his  Sommairey  and  it,  together  with  the  word  "person," 
for  the  same  reason  was  absent  from  the  Catechism 
and  Confession  which  Calvin  and  Farel  had  just  pre- 
pared for  the  Genevan  Church.  Moreover,  Claude 
Aliodi,  a  wandering  preacher  whom  the  government  of 
Bern  had  banished,  in  1534,  for  opinions  essentially 
similar  to  those  already  presented  by  Servetus  in  his 
De  Trinitatis  ErroribuSy  of  1531,  had  been  at  one  time 
a  colleague  of  Farel  at  Neuchatel,  and  had  affirmed  to 
the  pastors  at  Constance  that  Farel' s  beliefs  were  simi- 
lar to  his  own.^  He  was  now^  living  at  Thonon,  on  the 
southern  shore  of  Lake  Geneva.  To  a  man  of  Caroli's 
temperament,  Calvin's  refusal  to  subscribe  to  the  three 
creeds  would,  in  any  case,  seem  scarcely  susceptible  of 
an  orthodox  explanation. 

From  Lausanne,  the  matter  of  CaroH's  prayers  for 
the  dead  was  carried  to  Bern,  where,  on  February  28th 
and  March  ist,  Caroli  renewed  his  charges  before  the 
ministers  of  the  Consistory,  in  the  presence  of  Calvin 
and  Viret.  Calvin  defended  himself  and  Farel  in  an 
address  of  great  passion  and  extreme  personal  invec- 
tive, but  also  of  such  convincing  power  that  Caroli 
promptly  withdrew  the  charge  as  far  as  Calvin  himself 
was  concerned. "^  Calvin  refused  to  separate  Farel' s 
cause  from  his  own,  and  with  Viret  asked  the  min- 
isters of  Bern  to  join  in  procuring  from  the  Bernese 


'  Herminjard,  iii.  173,  174;    Doumergue,  ii.  241. 

*  Calvin  gives  an  outline  of  the  address,  Opera,  vii.  309. 


200 


John  Calvin  [1536- 


government  the  summons  of  a  synod.  It  was  obtained, 
though  not  without  difficulty,  for  the  spiritual  leaders  of 
Bern  were  disposed  to  look  upon  the  dispute  as  one 
thrust  upon  them  by  foreigners,  strangers  to  Switzer- 
land, of  whose  orthodoxy  there  might  be  just  suspicion. 
Before  the  Synod  met  at  Lausanne  on  May  14th  under 
the  presidency  of  the  pastors  of  Bern,  and  members  of 
the  Bernese  government,  with  an  attendance  of  more 
than  a  hundred  ministers  of  French-speaking  Switzer- 
land, Calvin  and  Farel  appeared,  accompanied  by  their 
eloquent  bKnd  colleague,  Elie  Coraud.  As  at  Bern, 
Calvin  replied  to  CaroH  with  great  heat  and  vehement 
personalities,  but  with  such  solid  defence  of  his  position 
that  success  was  im^mediately  his.  The  Genevan  re- 
formers were  pronounced  orthodox,  Caroli  was  de- 
prived of  his  ministry,  and  even  Claude  Aliodi  recanted 
his  Arianism.^  Once  more  the  matter  came  to  public 
discussion,  when  a  synod  of  German- speaking  pastors 
from  the  Bernese  territories  met  at  Bern  on  May  31st, 
in  connection  with  the  civil  Council  of  Two  Hundred  of 
that  city.  Here  Farel  brought  most  damaging  charges 
against  Caroli's  private  life,  and  he  was  forbidden  to 
preach  in  Bernese  territory.  The  Genevan  reformers 
were  declared  orthodox  by  the  government  of  Bern.'' 
As  for  Caroli,  he  speedily  returned  to  France  and  to 
the  Roman  Church,  only  to  become  a  Protestant  once 
more  in  1539;  but,  by  1543,  he  was  again  in  the  oldei: 
communion. 


'  Letter  of  Megander  to  Bullinger,  May  22,  1537,   Herminjard,  iv. 
235;   Calvin's  own  account  is  in  Opera,  vii.  310-317. 

2  Herminjard,  iv.  238-244;   Opera,  vii.  325-337;  xb.  105. 


1538]  Early  Work  at  Geneva  201 

Calvin  and  Farel  had  passed  successfully  through  a 
great  crisis;  chiefly  by  reason  of  the  real  groundlessness 
of  the  charges  against  them,  but  in  no  small  degree, 
also,  because  of  the  moral  weakness  of  their  opponent. 
Yet  their  estabhshment  in  public  confidence  was  not 
easily  secured.  Suspicion  and  doubt  at  Bern,  Basel, 
Zurich,  and  Strassburg,  and  even  with  Melanchthon, 
had  to  be  overcome.'  If  Calvin  displayed  great  asperity 
of  temper  in  his  treatment  of  his  accuser,  the  seriousness 
of  the  situation  and  the  baselessness  of  the  charges  are 
largely  an  explanation;  and  the  loyal  friendship  with 
which  he  supported  Farel  and  linked  his  own  fate  with 
that  of  his  associate,  when  a  separate  defence  would  in 
some  respects  have  been  easier,  is  worthy  of  all  praise. 
That  he  had  been  suspected  of  sympathy  with  Servetus 
by  such  men  as  Myconius,  Bucer,  and  Melanchthon, 
even  though  but  for  a  brief  time,  undoubtedly  added 
intensity  to  his  hostile  feeling  toward  that  speculative 
Spaniard  when  the  two  came  in  conflict  at  a  much  later 
period. 

These  weeks  of  struggle  to  vindicate  himself  to  foreign 
opinion  in  consequence  of  Caroli's  accusation  were 
also  a  time  of  contest  with  foes  in  Geneva  itself.  In 
March,  1537,  two  Netherlandish  Anabaptists  appeared 
in  the  city,  demanding  of  its  authorities  the  right  to 
dispute  with  the  ministers,  whose  interpretation  of  the 
' '  Word  of  God ' '  they,  of  course,  challenged.  The  Little 
Council  deemed  it  dangerous  that  they  be  heard  in 
public, — the  Miinster  catastrophe  was  still  recent, — 

I  Letters  in  Herminjard,  iv.  passim.  They  are  well  summed  up  by 
Doumergue,  ii.  266-268. 


202  John  Calvin  [1536- 

but  voted  that  they  present  their  cause  before  the 
Council  of  Two  Hundred.  On  Farel's  insistence, 
however,  this  decision  was  amended  and  two  long  days 
of  public  debate — March  i6th  and  17th — followed,  till 
the  Council  of  Two  Hundred,  perceiving  much  excite- 
ment of  the  popular  mind,  ordered  the  dispute  to  cease, 
seized  the  papers  prepared  on  either  side,  declared  the 
Anabaptists  defeated  and  banished  them  on  pain  of 
death.^  In  Colladon's  Life  of  Calvin  this  repulse  is 
attributed  to  Calvin's  skill  in  debate; ""  but  it  may  justly 
be  questioned  whether  his  arguments  had  so  much 
force  as  the  orders  of  hostile  civil  authority. 

While  these  contests,  within  and  without,  were  in 
progress,  the  enforcement  of  the  acceptance  of  the 
Confession  upon  all  the  inhabitants  of  Geneva  made 
slow  advance.  It  was,  at  best,  a  dangerous  experiment 
to  undertake  in  a  city  where  allegiance  to  the  Evangelical 
cause  was  so  largely  the  result  of  political  conditions; 
but  Calvin  believed  it  to  be  fundamental  to  the  erection 
of  a  proper  Church,  and  had  persuaded  Farel  and 
Coraud  to  a  like  point  of  view.  Geneva  had  already 
seen  divisions  between ''Eidguenots"  and  "Mamelouks," 
resulting  in  the  victory  of  the  former  and  the  expulsion 
of  the  power  of  Savoy.  Then  the  contest  had  raged 
between  Protestants  and  Catholics,  till  the  city  had  be- 
come, in  name  at  least,  all  Protestant.  But  among  the 
adherents  of  the  Evangehcal  cause  two  points  of  view 
naturally  arose.     While  one  wing,  led  by  such  men  as 


^  Registres  du  Conseil,  xxx.   188-193;     Opera,  xxi.   208-210;    Dou- 
mergue,  ii.  242-243. 
*  Opera,  xxi.  59. 


538] 


Early  Work  at  Geneva  203 


the  excellent  Ami  Porral,  Michel  Sept,  Jean  Curtet, 
and  Jean  Goulaz,  supported  the  reformers,  another 
considerable  element  valued  the  Protestantising  of 
Geneva  more  for  its  political  than  for  its  rehgious  re- 
sults, wished  no  strenuous  discipline,  looked  upon  Cal- 
vin, Farel,  and  Coraud  as  French  strangers  who  had 
crowded  out  old  Genevan  leaders,  and  admired  the 
Protestantism  of  Bern,  where  the  Church  was  controlled 
by  the  State  and  its  pastors  claimed  no  such  disciplinary 
powers  as  were  being  soilght  by  the  ministry  of  Geneva. 
It  was  inevitable  that  such  a  party  of  opposition  should 
arise,  and  its  beginnings  had  appeared  even  before 
Calvin  had  become  an  effective  leader  of  Genevan  affairs 
or  the  Articles  had  been  formulated.  Of  this  party  were 
such  men  as  Jean  Philippe,  Claude  Richardet,  Ami  de 
Chapeaurouge,  and  Pierre  Vandel.  Then,  too,  the 
aristocratic  constitution  of  Geneva  gave  occasion,  al- 
most of  necessity,  for  a  party  of  opposition.  As  has 
been  seen,^  the  Two  Hundred  elected  sixteen  of  the 
members  of  the  Little  Council,  and  the  Little  Council 
chose  the  Two  Hundred.  It  was  almost  a  close  cor- 
poration; but  there  was  one  very  important  point  of 
popular  attack.  The  General  Assembly  of  citizens 
chose  the  syndics  and  the  treasurer,  who  constituted 
the  immediate  executive  and  the  most  powerful  element 
in  the  Little  Council.  A  popular  opposition  of  sufficient 
strength  could  therefore  profoundly  modify  the  govern- 
ment at  the  annual  election  in  February,  and  the 
hope  of  those  out  of  power  was  now  set  on  such  a 
reversal. 


^  Ante,  p.  178. 


204 


John  Calvin  [1536- 


In  February,  1537,  less  than  a  month  after  the  ap- 
proval of  the  Articles,  the  elections  had  gone  in  favour 
of  the  party  supporting  the  reformers,  through  the 
choice  of  Curtet,  Goulaz,  Claude  Pertemps,  and  Pernet 
Desfosses  as  syndics.  It  was  therefore  to  a  friendly 
government  that  Calvin  and  his  associates  could  look 
for  the  enforcement  of  the  Confession.  Requested  by 
Farel  and  Calvin,  the  Little  Council  voted,  on  March 
13th,  to  "cause  the  Articles  to  be  observed  in  full."  ' 
But,  for  reasons  that  have  been  seen,  the  reformers  were 
unable  to  press  matters  at  the  time,  and  it  was  nearly  the 
end  of  April  before  printed  copies  were  ordered  distrib- 
uted to  aid  in  taking  the  assent  of  the  citizens  in  groups. 
Opposition  was  evidently  being  encountered,  how- 
ever, for,  on  May  ist,  the  Little  Council  declared  that 
it  would  do  regarding  the  Articles  "the  best  it  could." 
On  July  29th,  urged  by  Farel,  Calvin,  and  Coraud,  the 
Council  of  Two  Hundred  ordered  the  local  officers  of 
the  city  (dizenniers)  to  bring  the  groups  of  their  several 
districts  to  the  Church  of  Saint- Pierre  to  assent  to  the 
Confession.  This  was  largely  done;  but  many  refused, 
and,  on  September  19th,  the  Council  informed  such 
malcontents  that,  if  persistent,  "they  should  be  told  to 
go  elsewhere  to  hve."  On  November  12th,  the  Little 
Council  repeated  the  demand  for  assent  and  threat  of 
banishment  yet  more  emphatically,  and  was  reinforced 
three  days  later  by  the  Two  Hundred.     Matters  had, 


^  For  this  and  the  other  quotations  and  citations  in  this  paragraph 
see  Registres  du  Conseil,  xxx.  189,  212,  219,  229,  xxxi.  30,  32,  45,  49, 
61,  81,  90,  93,  100  ;  Opera,  xxi.  208-217.  Compare  Kampschulte,  i. 
298-306;  Cornelius,  pp.  137-151;  Domergue,  ii.  244-251. 


1538]  Early  Work  at  Geneva  205 

however,  reached  a  crisis.  Strengthened  by  an  un- 
favourable opinion  of  the  Confession  expressed  by 
Commissioners  from  Bern  recently  present  in  Geneva 
on  quite  other  business,  the  opposition  forced  a  meeting 
of  the  General  Assembly,  for  which  political  negotiations 
with  Bern  gave  more  regular  cause.  Its  session  was 
stormy.  Farel  in  especial  was  attacked,  and  Jean 
PhiHppe,  the  leader  of  the  opposition,  proposed  the 
appointment  of  a  commission  to  hear  all  complaints. 
That,  if  carried  out,  would  have  superseded  the  regular 
officials  in  a  fundamental  part  of  their  work.  Only 
with  great  difficulty  did  the  party  in  control  of  the  gov- 
ernment succeed  in  weathering  the  storm,  and  it  was 
evident  that  its  hold  on  Geneva  was  profoundly 
shaken. 

Under  these  circumstances,  had  Calvin  been  a  weaker, 
or  possibly  a  more  experienced  man,  or  had  his  associa- 
ciates  been  less  fiery  and  more  worldly-wise  than  Farel 
and  Coraud,  he  would  have  modified  the  severity  of 
his  demands  and  sought  to  lead  to  the  results  he  desired 
by  a  more  gradual  process.  He  was,  however,  young, 
convinced  that  his  way  was  that  of  obedience  to  God, 
and  mastered  by  that  Gallic  logic  in  following  a  prin- 
ciple to  its  full  consequences  which  the  compromise- 
loving  Anglo-Saxon  finds  hard  to  appreciate.  Yet  one 
can  but  admire  his  courage  and  his  disinterested  loyalty 
to  conviction.  And,  at  first,  in  spite  of  the  unfavour- 
able results  of  the  General  Assembly,  it  seemed  as  if 
Calvin  were  making  progress.  With  Farel  he  went  to 
Bern  and  secured  what  was  practically  a  disavowal  of 
the  unofficial  criticisms  passed  by  the  Bernese  Com- 


2o6  John  Calvin  [1536- 

missioners  on  the  Confession,  the  approval  by  the  Ber- 
nese ministers  of  its  contents,  and  letters  from  the 
government  of  that  powerful  canton  recommending 
''peace,  union,  and  tranquilHty"  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Geneva.'  Strengthened  thus,  for  the  moment,  by  evi- 
dence that  Bern  would  not  then  support  the  opposition, 
Farel,  Calvin,  and  Coraud  informed  the  Little  Council 
that  they  deemed  it  best  to  exclude  from  participation 
in  the  January  communion  ''those  whom  they  knew  to 
be  disunited," — that  is  opponents  of  the  Confession, — 
and  asked  the  Council's  support.  It  was  granted,  in 
part,  for  on  receipt  of  a  third  letter  from  Bern,  on 
January  4,  1538,  the  Two  Hundred  sent  for  two  of  the 
chief  malcontents  and  induced  them  to  swear  assent 
to  the  Confession;  yet,  to  the  disappointment  of  the 
reformers,  the  same  body  voted  "that  the  Supper  should 
be  refused  to  no  one."  Though  the  struggle  for  the 
Confession  was  substantially  gained,  Calvin's  labours 
to  introduce  an  effective,  independent,  ecclesiastical 
excommunication  were  thus  brought  to  naught.''  The 
opposition  was  evidently  too  threatening,  though  its 
point  of  attack  was  now  shifting  to  the  question  of  dis- 
cipline. 

With  the  election  of  February  3d  following,  came 
a  complete  poUtical  overturn.  The  leaders  of  the  op- 
position, Claude  Richardet,  Jean  PhiUppe,  Jean  Lullin, 
and  Ami  de  Chapeaurouge,  were  chosen  syndics.  The 
next  day  ten  new  members  were  elected  into  the  Little 


'  Registres  du  Conseil,  xxxi.  129-146;    Opera,  xxi.  217-220;   Letters 
of  December  6,  9,  and  28,  1537,  Opera,  xb.  130-134. 
^  Registres  du  Conseil,  xxxi.  146;  Opera,  xxi.  219,  220. 


1538]  Early  Work  at  Geneva  207 

Council.  Even  Porral  was  deprived  of  all  ofFice.  Yet, 
though  the  party  critical  of  the  reformers  was  now  in 
power,  and  Farel,  Calvin,  and  Coraud  were  jeered  and 
derided  by  the  more  disorderly  of  the  populace,  the 
relations  of  the  reformers  and  the  government  were  at 
first  officially  regular  and  undisturbed.  This  siate  of 
suspense  could  not  long  continue,  however,  without 
serious  modifications  on  one  side  or  the  other,  and  it  was 
speedily  changed  to  open  warfare.  Certain  propo- 
sitions had  been  made  in  February  by  a  Savoyard  noble- 
man in  French  service,  the  sieur  de  Montchenu,  to 
leading  men  in  Geneva  of  both  parties,  very  possibly 
inspired  by  his  sovereign,  Francis  I.,  designed  to  further 
that  monarch's  wish  to  separate  Geneva  from  the  alli- 
ance with  Bern  and  bring  the  city  under  a  French 
protectorate.  The  approaches  were  loyally  rejected; 
but  among  those  addressed  had  been  Michel  Sept,  a 
leader  among  the  supporters  of  the  reformers.  Party 
hatred  saw  in  this  negotiation  with  the  enemies  of  the 
city  an  opportunity  to  complete  the  discomfiture  of  the 
defeated  heads  of  the  former  government;  and,  at  a 
meeting  of  the  Two  Hundred,  held  on  March  i  ith,  six  of 
the  party  which  had  supported  the  reformers,  including 
Sept  and  three  of  the  syndics  of  1537,  who  by  custom 
had  places  in  the  Little  Council,  were  suspended  from 
office.  The  course  of  these  proceedings  against  their 
friends  had  drawn  the  public  denunciation  of  Farel 
and  Calvin,  and  the  same  session  of  the  Two  Hundred 
saw  them  forbidden  "to  mix  in  politics,  but  to  preach 
the  Gospel  as  God  has  commanded."  This  was  a  direct 
limitation  on  the  freedom  of  the  pulpit,  and  such  men 


2o8  John  Calvin  [1536- 

as  the  Genevan  reformers  were  not  likely  willingly  to 
submit.' 

Strained  as  the  relations  between  the  reformers  and 
the  Genevan  government  were,  a  further  action  at  this 
session  of  the  Two  Hundred  was  even  more  intolerable 
to  men  like  Farel  and  Calvin  than  a  prohibition  to  mix  in 
politics.  The  Council  voted  to  "  hve  under  the  Word  of 
God  according  to  the  ordinances  of  the  lords  of  Bern." 
That  is  to  say,  the  civil  authorities  of  Geneva,  without 
even  consulting  the  ministers,  determined  the  ritual  of 
the  Church.  Their  action  swept  away  all  partial 
ecclesiastical  independence,  such  as  Calvin  ardently 
desired;  and,  taken  as  it  was,  it  seemed  well-nigh  an 
insult  to  the  Genevan  reformers.  It  reveals  in  the  clear- 
est light  the  strained  state  of  party  feeling  in  the  city. 

Like  most  problems  on  which  men  divide,  that  of  the 
Bernese  ''ceremonies"  ^ — laying  aside  all  question  of  the 
method  of  their  adoption  by  the  Genevan  government 
— had  two  sides.  The  Reformation  at  Bern  had  not 
been  quite  so  radical  in  its  destruction  of  the  older 
worship  as  that  under  the  uncompromising  Farel  at 
Geneva.  Bern  had  retained  the  use  of  the  font  in  bap- 
tism, unleavened  bread  in  the  Supper,  the  festive  array 
of  brides  at  weddings,  and  the  observance  of  Christmas, 
Easter,  Ascension,  and  Pentecost.^  At  Geneva,  all 
these  had  been  done  away.    To  the  credit  of  the  good 


'  See  Cornelius,  pp.  157-159,  259;  Doumergue,  ii.  271-272;  Re- 
gistres  du  Conseil,  xxxii.  3. 

^  See  Cornelius,  pp.  161-169;   Doumergue,  ii.  273-277. 

3  See  Doumergue,  ii.  277;  Herminjard  gives  them  as  Christmas, 
New  Year's,  Annunciation,  and  Ascension,  iv.  413.  The  contemporary 
documents  speak  of  them  generally  as  the  "  festivals  "  or  "  four  festivals." 


'^h 


CALVIN'S  CHAIR   IN   THE  CATHEDRAL   (SAINT  PIERRE). 


1538]  Early  Work  at  Geneva  209 

sense  of  the  reformers  of  Bern  and  Geneva  alike,  be  it 
said,  the  matter  was  regarded  on  both  sides  as  relatively 
unimportant  in  itself.'  But  the  situation  was  further 
complicated  by  the  fact  that  the  success  of  the  war  of 
1536  against  Savoy  had  left  Lausanne,  Thonon,  and 
in  fact  most  of  the  French-speaking  territories  about 
Lake  Geneva — save  the  small  tract  over  which  that  city 
held  control — under  Bernese  authority.  While  Bern 
thus  held  most  of  the  French-speaking  EvangeUcal 
portions  of  Switzerland  under  its  sway,  and  Bern's 
victories  had  made  their  Protestantism  possible,  it  was 
but  natural  that  their  ministers,  who  were  mostly  French- 
men, should  look  to  French-speaking  Geneva  rather 
than  to  German-speaking  Bern  with  sympathy,  and 
adopt  Genevan  ideals  of  worship.  In  many  places,  as 
under  Viret  at  Lausanne,  the  Reformation  was  intro- 
duced by  personal  friends  of  Farel  and  Calvin ;  and,  in 
turn,  the  Genevan  ministers  welcomed  the  French- 
speaking  pastors  from  Bernese  territories  to  their 
''Colloquium,"  or  ministers'  meeting.  On  the  other 
hand,  Farel  and  Calvin  recognised  the  eccclesiastical 
supremacy  of  Bern  in  affairs  concerning  its  own  terri- 
tories or  ministers,  as  in  the  case  of  CaroH.  Bern  natu- 
rally wished  uniform  ceremonies  in  its  territories,  and, 
without  absolutely  forcing  the  issue,  threw  its  influence 
in  that  direction;  while  the  constant  Bernese  desire  to 
possess  as  much  control  in  the  affairs  of  Geneva  as 
possible,  as  well  as  the  more  laudable  wish  to  have  all 
southern  Switzerland  one  in  worship,  incHned  Bern  to 
seek  the  establishment  of  its  "ceremonies"  in  Geneva 


^  Herminjard,  iv.  io6,  145;   v.  3,  4. 


2IO  John  Calvin  [1536- 

itself.  In  December,  1537,  the  authorities  of  Bern 
had  instructed  the  embassy  they  proposed  to  send  to 
Geneva  to  raise  the  question  of  conformity  to  Bernese 
practice.^  OnMarch5,  i538,nhey  had  notified  the  Gen- 
evan government  that  they  had  thought  good  to  call  a 
synod  to  meet  at  Lausanne  on  March  31st,  "for  the 
welfare  and  union  of  our  preachers," — that  is  to  discuss 
the  introduction  of  the  ceremonies  into  all  Bernese 
territories, — and  asked  for  the  presence  of  Farel  and 
Calvin.  It  was  probably  the  receipt  of  this  letter  that 
emboldened  the  Two  Hundred  to  vote  the  introduction 
of  the  Bernese  ceremonies  at  Geneva  on  March  nth. 

Meanwhile  the  hopes  of  Bern  rose.  On  March  20th, 
the  council  of  that  city,  apparently  in  ignorance  of  what 
the  Genevan  authorities  had  done  on  March  nth, 
wrote  again,  saying  that  the  Genevan  ministers  would 
be  admitted  to  the  synod  at  Lausanne  only  on  previous 
acceptance  of  the  ceremonies.^  At  this  difficult  juncture 
Farel  and  Calvin  behaved  with  equal  courage  and  wis- 
dom. They  presented  themselves  at  the  meeting  at 
Lausanne,  but  attempted  no  part  in  its  affairs.  They 
would  not  compromise  the  liberty  of  the  Genevan 
Church,  even  if  the  Genevan  authorities  had  voted 
in  favour  of  ceremonies  to  which  in  themselves,  as 
practised  at  Bern  and  approved  at  Lausanne  for  the 
French-speaking  Bernese   territories,  they  had  no  se- 


^  opera,    xb.    132. 

*  Herminjard,  iv.  403,  gives  the  date  as  March  5th,  and  Cornelius 
and  Doumergue  agree.     The  Opera,  xb.  179,  dates  March  12th. 

3Herminjard,  iv.  403;  Cornelius,  pp.  171-174;  Doumergue,  ii.  278. 
279. 


1538]  Early  Work  at  Geneva  211 

rious  objection.  On  the  other  hand,  they  would  not 
alienate  Bern  by  open  hostility.  Hence,  when  the 
synod  was  over,  and  not  till  then,  they  entered  into 
negotiation  with  the  religious  and  civil  leaders  of 
Bern  with  a  view  to  having  the  question  of  the  cere- 
monies postponed  till  the  meeting  of  a  much  larger 
Swiss  synod  at  Zurich,  already  in  prospect  for  April 
28th.  Had  Kaspar  Megander  still  been  the  spirit- 
ual leader  at  Bern,  they  might  have  succeeded  even 
now  in  their  request;  but  he  had  been  dismissed  from 
his  post  in  December,  1537,  and  his  successor,  Peter 
Kuntz,  a  rough  Swiss  peasant  by  origin,  was  as  little 
sympathetic  with  the  more  cultivated  Frenchmen  as 
they  with  him.  The  Bernese  were  too  confident  that 
the  course  of  events  was  running  as  they  wished,  to 
desire  to  alter  or  postpone  decisions  already  reached  by 
the  Genevan  government. 

On  April  15th,  the  government  of  Bern  wrote  letters  ^ 
to  the  Genevan  authorities  and  to  Calvin  and  Farel 
which  were  the  immediate  occasion  of  the  final  crisis. 
That  to  the  reformers  was  of  interest  in  that,  for  the  first 
time  in  an  official  document,  the  name  of  Calvin  was 
placed  before  that  of  his  older  associate.  In  these 
letters  they  reported  the  result  of  the  synod  at  Lausanne, 
and  asked  conformity  to  the  Bernese  ceremonies.  The 
Little  Council,  having  received  the  communication, 
summoned  Farel  and  Calvin  and  asked  "whether  they 
would  observe  the  said  ceremonies  or  not."  The 
reformers  urged  that  the  matter  rest  till  after  the  ap- 
proaching synod  at  Zurich.     Dismissed  for  the  time  by 


^  Opera,  xb.  184-186. 


212 


John  Calvin  [1536- 


the  Little  Council,  that  body  sent  a  messenger  later  in 
the  day  to  Calvin  and  Farel,  who  reported  that  they 
'totally  refused  to  preach  or  give  the  Supper  in"  the 
Bernese  form.  At  the  same  session  the  Council  forbade 
Coraud  to  preach  till  he  had  answered  before  judicial 
authority  for  his  public  criticisms  of  the  government. 
The  following  day  Coraud  preached  in  defiance,  and 
was  promptly  imprisoned.  This  seemed  to  Calvin  and 
Farel  insupportable,  and  accompanied  by  a  number  of 
the  party  favourable  to  them,  including  the  ex-syndics 
Curtet  and  Pertemps,  and  also  Michel  Sept  and  Ami 
Perrin,  they  appeared  before  the  syndics,  protesting 
against  Coraud's  imprisonment  and  demanding  a 
meeting  of  the  Two  Hundred.  The  government  hesi- 
tated to  proceed  to  final  measures,  and  presented  a 
compromise,  offering  to  allow  the  question  of  the  cere- 
monies to  wait  till  the  synod  at  Zurich,  provided  Farel 
and  Calvin  would  consent  to  Coraud's  deposition  from 
his  pastorate.  The  reformers  declined  thus  to  desert 
their  colleague;  \;^nd,  on  Calvin's  repeated  refusal  to 
use  the  Bernese  ceremonies  at  the  approaching  com- 
munion, they  were  forbidden  to  preach, — the  Council 
declaring  that  it  ''would  find  others"  to  take  their 
places.  Its  hope  was  in  the  weak-kneed  Henri  de  la 
Mare,  pastor  of  the  Genevan  country  parish  of  Jussy- 
I'Eveque;  but,  by  Farel  and  Calvin's  threats  of  ex- 
communication, he  was  induced,  for  the  time,  to  agree 
to  remain  inactive.^ 

The   morning   following   was   Easter   Sunday,    and 


^  For  these  events  see  Regisires  du  Conseil,  xxxii.  31-34;   Opera,  xxi. 
223-226;  Cornelius,  pp.  174-179;   Doumergue,  ii.  279-281. 


1538]  Early  Work  at  Geneva  213 

amid  great  excitement,  in  spite  of  the  prohibition,  Cal- 
vin preached  at  Saint-Pierre  and  Farel  at  Saint- Gervais. 
It  was  communion  day;  but  they  refused  to  distribute 
the  elements,  not,  as  they  carefully  explained,  because 
they  deemed  the  Bernese  use  of  unleavened  bread  in 
itself  wrong,  but  because  to  administer  the  Supper  in 
circumstances  of  such  popular  tumult  would  be  *'to 
profane  so  holy  a  mystery."  The  breach  was  now 
complete.  The  Little  Council  met  the  same  day,  and 
summoned  the  Two  Hundred  for  the  morrow  and  the 
General  Assembly  for  the  day  thereafter.  By  these 
bodies  the  Bernese  ceremonies  were  once  more  rati- 
fied ;  and  by  a  majority  vote  of  the  General  Assembly, 
on  April  23d,  Farel,  Calvin,  and  Coraud  were  ordered 
to  leave  Geneva  within  three  days. 

The  dry  pages  of  the  official  register  of  Geneva  glow 
with  unwonted  vividness  as  they  record  Calvin's  an- 
swer to  the  announcement  of  his  banishment:  "Well, 
indeed !  If  we  had  served  men,  we  should  have  been  ill 
rewarded,  but  we  serve  a  great  Master  who  will  recom- 
pense usl"  '  But  neither  Farel  nor  Calvin  had  any 
thought  of  abandoning  the  struggle  without  effort. 
They  at  once  betook  themselves  to  the  authorities  at 
Bern.  The  Bernese  government  lent  them  willing  ears. 
Matters  at  Geneva  had  gone  much  too  far  to  please 
Bern,  however  desirous  of  ceremonial  uniformity. 
Bern  began  to  fear  for  the  Protestant  cause  in  Geneva. 
But  the  controlling  party  at  Geneva  remained  deaf  to 
Bernese  representations.  Without  waiting  for  the  re- 
sult of  Bern's  appeal,   the   reformers  pushed  on   to 


Registres  du  Conseil,  xxxii.  36;   Opera,  xxi.  226,  227. 


214 


John  Calvin  [1536- 


Ziirich,  where  the  synod  representative  of  that  canton, 
of  Basel,  Bern,  Schaffhausen,  St.  Gall,  and  other  Swiss 
Evangelical  territories,  of  which  mention  has  already 
been  made,  met  on  April  28th.  Before  this  body  they 
presented  an  elaborate  statement,  practically  accept- 
ing the  Bernese  ceremonies  as  matters  in  the  liberty  of 
each  church,  but  setting  forth  with  unabated  courage 
their  programme  of  ecclesiastical  reform.  They  urged 
the  establishment  of  efficient  discipline,  the  use  of  ex- 
communication, the  division  of  the  city  into  parishes, 
more  frequent  observation  of  the  Supper,  singing  of 
Psalms,  and  a  more  careful  order  of  ministerial  selec- 
tion and  appointment.^  Their  recent  Genevan  experi- 
ences had  not  caused  them  to  withdraw  a  hair's-breadth 
from  the  strenuous  ideal  to  which  they  had  set  them- 
selves,— an  ideal  more  thorough-going  than  anything 
realised  in  practice  as  yet  by  any  of  the  EvangeHcal 
churches.  The  synod,  under  the  persuasive  influence 
of  the  reformers,  approved  their  position,  though  urging 
them  to  use  more  Christian  compliance  toward  an 
undisciphned  people;  and  recommended  the  Bernese 
authorities  to  seek  their  restoration.^  Thus  fortified, 
they  returned  to  Bern.  The  aid  wished  was  granted; 
but  again  the  way  was  barred.  Though  Bern  de- 
spatched an  embassy  toward  Geneva  with  Farel  and 
Calvin,  the  Little  Council  forbade  them  to  enter  the 
city,3  — a  result  to  which  the  hostility  of  Peter  Kuntz, 

^  Herminjard,  v.  ^-6.  The  reformers  would  have  men  free  to  work 
after  the  sermon  on  the  four  feasts. 

^Herminjard,  v.  14,  17. 

3  Registres  du  Conseil,  xxxii.  60;  Opera,  xxi.  229;  Farel  and  Calvin 
to  Bullinger,  June,  1538,  Herminjard,  v.  21-29. 


1538]  Early  Work  at  Geneva  215 

the  pastor  at  Bern,  and  of  his  correspondent,  Pierre 
Vandel,  not  a  Httle  contributed. 

Calvin's  work  at  Geneva  was  now  wholly,  and,  as 
far  as  could  then  be  seen,  permanently,  at  an  end. 
Most  various  judgments  have  been  passed  upon  it.  It 
is  impossible  to  affirm  that  it  was  always  wise  or  skilful. 
A  slower  and  more  educative  attempt  to  secure  the  re- 
forms which  he  wished,  and  for  which  Geneva  was  so 
far  from  ready,  would  probably  have  been  much  more 
effective.  The  situation  was  obscured  by  party  hatred, 
for  the  origin  of  which  Calvin  was  not  responsible,  but 
in  which  he  might  have  treated  the  opposing  interests 
with  more  politic  skill.  He  showed  too  much  of  the 
impetuosity  of  youth  and  inexperience.  It  was  natural 
that  he  should.  But,  whatever  judgment  may  be 
passed  upon  his  methods,  the  ends  which  he  had  in 
view  had  never  been  uncertain  or  ignoble.  He  would 
have  Geneva  an  orderly,  disciplined,  Christian  city, 
and  he  would  make  its  Church,  to  a  degree  yet  unknown 
in  Protestant  circles,  self-governing.  Apparently  he 
had  failed;  but  it  was  a  failure  that  carried  no  dis- 
grace in  the  retrospect,  however  sharply  Calvin  was 
blamed  by  contemporary  opponents,  and  criticised 
even  by  such  friends  of  the  past  or  present  as  du  Tillet 
and  Bucer.^ 


'-  Letters,  Herminjard,  v.  65,  103. 


CHAPTER  IX 

CALVIN  IN   STRASSBURG 

CONVINCED  that  their  hope  of  restoration  to  the 
Genevan  pastorate  was  vain  for  the  time  being, 
Farel  and  Calvin  made  their  way  to  Basel,  where  they 
felt  that,  among  friends,  they  might  await  further  de- 
velopments. Here  they  found  a  welcome  in  the  home 
of  Johann  Oporin,  the  pubHsher  of  the  Institutes.  They 
watched  eagerly  for  news  from  Geneva,^  and  Calvin, 
perhaps  even  more  than  his  less  sensitive  companion, 
felt  a  deep  sense  of  injury.  He  was  profoundly  wounded 
in  spirit  by  the  experiences  through  which  he  had  passed ; 
and  his  trust  was  still  that  through  the  aid  of  friends  a 
synod  of  Protestant  Switzerland  might  be  called  wliich 
would  effect  their  restoration.  Bernese  reports  spread 
through  the  Evangelical  cantons  that  all  was  well  under 
the  new  regime  in  Geneva  caused  these  hopes  to  fade; 
but,  as  the  days  passed,  Calvin  began  to  take  heart 
again  as  having  received  this  bitter  cup  from  an  all- 
wise  overruHng  Providence,  which  in  due  time  would 
vindicate  its  ways.^ 

Meanwhile  Calvin's  two  Genevan  associates  found 


'  Their  letter  to  Viret  and  Coraud,  June  14,  Heraiinjard,  v.  30. 
^  See,  for  these  emotions  and  hopes,  his  contemporary  letters,  notably 
to  Bullinger,  Ibid.,  p.  21;  to  du  Tillet,  p.  43;  to  Farel,  p.  70. 

[216] 


[1538-1541]  In  Strassburg  217 

other  places  of  work.  Coraud  entered  on  a  brief  and 
unhappy  pastorate  at  Orbe,  which  was  closed  in  a  few 
weeks  by  his  death  on  October  4th.  The  call  of 
Antoine  Marcourt  from  Neuchatel  by  the  Genevan 
authorities  opened  a  pastorate  there  for  Farel;  and, 
before  the  end  of  July,  he  was  labouring  in  that  already 
familiar  field.  For  Calvin  the  decision  was  more  diffi- 
cult. Farel  wished  him  in  continued  association;  but 
Calvin  felt  rightly  that  such  a  joint  ministry  so  near 
Geneva  would  arouse  their  opponents,  and  Bucer 
urged  that  such  companionship  and  location  would  but 
cause  the  wound  which  Calvin  had  received  to  rankle 
with  fresh  bitterness.'  Bucer  was,  indeed,  proving 
himself  the  wise  and  kindly  friend  that  Calvin  needed 
in  this  crisis.  The  letter  that  brought  this  advice,  re- 
peated to  the  chagrined  young  scholar  at  Basel  a  warm 
invitation,  already  urged  upon  him,  to  make  Strassburg 
his  home, — in  which  Capito  and  Johann  Sturm  also 
joined. "^  The  body  of  French  refugees  which  he  might 
serve  in  that  German  city,  Bucer  told  him,  was  indeed 
small,  but  it  needed  his  aid;  and  a  ministry  at  Strass- 
burg might  be  of  some  service  even  to  the  cause  which 
he  had  at  heart  at  Geneva.  Calvin  hesitated.  To 
take  up  a  new  work  filled  him  with  distrust.  But  now 
Bucer,  as  Farel  had  done  at  Geneva,  urged  the  call  as 
of  God  and  cited  the  example  of  Jonah  as  parallel  to 
his  own.3  Thus  adjured,  Calvin  decided;  and,  prob- 
ably on  September  8th,  he  preached  his  first  sermon  to 


^  Herminjard,  v.  65,  77,  87,  88;    Cornelius,  pp.  197-200. 
*  Letter  about  August  ist,  Herminjard,  v.  64. 
3  Preface  to  the  Psalms,  Opera,  xxxi.  28. 


2i8  John  Calvin  [1538- 

the  French  congregation  in  the  Church  of  St.  Nicolas 
at  Strassburg.^ 

Strassburg,  where  Martin  Bucer,  Wolfgang  Capito, 
and  Kaspar  Hedio  had  laboured  since  1523,  was  the 
bulwark  of  the  Reformation  in  southwestern  Ger- 
many. In  Bucer  the  city  enjoyed  a  spiritual  leader 
second  only  to  Luther  and  Melanchthon.  In  Johann 
Sturm  it  possessed  an  educational  reformer  who  was 
making  its  school,  at  the  time  of  Calvin's  arrival,  a 
model  of  pedagogical  method.  In  Jakob  Sturm  Strass- 
burg had  the  guidance  of  a  statesman  of  remarkable 
talents  and  breadth  of  view;  and  all  had  worked  in 
harmony  to  promote  a  sane,  moderate,  and  co-operant 
type  of  Evangelical  Reformation.  The  city  had  been 
noted  for  its  friendliness  in  receiving  those  who  sought 
refuge  within  its  walls  when  persecuted  for  their  alle- 
giance to  the  Protestant  cause.  No  greater  good  fort- 
une could  have  come  to  Calvin,  in  his  depressed  and 
wounded  frame  of  mind,  nor,  indeed,  under  any  cir- 
cumstances, in  view  of  his  later  usefulness,  than  to  be 
given  three  years  of  activity  in  such  associations  as 
Strassburg  offered.  He  was  to  be  relieved,  in  large 
part,  of  the  conflicts  which  he  had  been  called  upon  to 
sustain  at  Geneva.  He  was  to  be  treated  with  full  re- 
spect. Time  was  to  be  his  for  study  and  for  the  per- 
fection of  his  theological  system.  He  was  to  make  the 
acquaintance  of  many  of  the  leaders  of  the  German 
Reformation.  He  was  to  marry.  He  was  to  ripen 
and  deepen  by  experience,  thought,  and  contact  with 


*  Herminjard,  v.  iii.;  Doumergue,  ii.  358. 


^4AK^INVc 


Rj^if^vS^"^   V 1  EL'  GirTEN^VN^GLERTf 

^?5^,^^^     KONfCIN  '  LOBESAN   - 

HAT  DIE>  ASCH-  EHRLlCHOBSTATTgNir  AN 


DR.   MARTIN   BUCER. 


I54I]  In  Strassburg  219 

men,  so  that  the  years  of  sojourn  at  Strassburg  must 
be  reckoned  among  the  most  valuable,  and  in  some 
aspects  the  most  agreeable,  in  his  experience.' 

At  Strassburg,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  spoke  no 
German,  Calvin  speedily  felt  at  home.  The  spiritual 
and  civil  leaders  of  the  city  were  cordial;  and,  so  far 
did  he  respond  to  the  attractions  of  his  new  environ- 
ment— doubly  grateful  after  the  storms  of  Geneva — 
that,  in  July,  1539,  he  became  a  citizen  of  Strassburg, 
being  enrolled  in  the  guild  of  tailors.''  This  association 
implied  no  necessary  working  connection  with  the  trade. 
Calvin's  act  shows  his  confidence  in  the  Strassburg  sit- 
uation, for  it  was  not  till  more  than  eighteen  years  after 
his  return  to  Geneva  that  he  was  to  enter  the  citizenship 
of  that  community.3  But,  though  in  friendly  associa- 
tions, Calvin  had  never  been  so  pressed  by  poverty  as 
he  was  to  be  during  these  months  at  Strassburg.  His 
pay  at  Geneva  had,  of  course,  ceased.  Du  Tillet's 
aid  had  helped  him  before,  and  the  prompt  offer  was 
not  wanting  now;  but  his  old  friend  was  now  on  his 
way  back  to  the  Roman  Church,  and  coupled  his  offer 
with  the  request — under  the  circumstances  almost  the 
condition — that  Calvin  refrain  from  public  activity. 
A  man  of  Calvin's  conscientious  and  sensitive  spirit 
could  not  but  refuse;  and  he  declined  the  offer  in  words 
full  of  gratitude  for  the  past,  but  positive  as  to  the  pres- 


^  Compare  the  remarks  of  Kampschulte,  i.  321.  By  far  the  best 
account  of  Calvin's  stay  in  Strassburg  is  that  of  Doumergue,  ii.  293- 
649. 

^  Ihid.y  ii.  350. 

3  December  25,  1559,  Registres  du  Cmiseil,  Iv.  163;  Opera,  xxi.  725. 
The  delay  was  for  prudential  reasons. 


220  John  Calvin  [1538- 

ent/  At  first  he  had  no  salary,  and  the  recompense 
of  fifty-two  florins  annually  allowed  him  by  the  school 
board  from  May  i,  1539,  was  merely  a  nominal  hono- 
rarium. A  larger  benefice  Calvin  seems  never  to  have 
received  at  Strassburg.^  Calvin's  financial  position 
was,  therefore,  oftentimes  one  of  distress.  It  is  not 
probable  that  he  sold  his  personal  Hbrary,  as  has  often 
been  said;  though  something  came  to  him  from  the 
sale  of  books  belonging  to  Olivetan's  estate.^  As  a 
means  of  easing  his  fortunes,  and  doubtless,  also,  of 
extending  his  influence  as  a  teacher,  he  took  young 
French  boarders,  for  the  most  part  students,  into  his 
house."* 

As  a  pastor  of  the  French  refugees  gathered  in  Strass- 
burg,  Calvin  soon  found  opportunity  to  put  into  prac- 
tice much  that  he  had  attempted  in  vain  at  Geneva. 
The  French  exiles  in  Strassburg,  who  may  have  num- 
bered from  four  to  six  hundred,  cannot  be  said  to  have 
become  a  completely  organised  religious  body  be- 
fore Calvin's  coming.  Under  the  supervision  of  the 
Strassburg  authorities,  to  whom  they,  like  all  other 
worshippers,  were  responsible,  they  had  had  occasional 
preaching  in  their  own  language.  But  with  Calvin's 
arrival  they  had  a  leader  acceptable  to  the  Strassburg 


^  Du  Tiliet's  letter  of  September  7,  1538,  Calvin's  reply  of  October 
20th,  Herminjard,  v.  107,  165;  see  also  292. 

^  See  Doumergue,  ii.  454-458,  where  the  matter  is  fully  discussed. 
The  florin  was  worth  about  a  dollar,  though  its  purchasing  power  was 
of  course  greater  than  now. 

3  Ibid.,  Herminjard,  vi.  13-26. 

4  Doumergue,  ii.  458-462,  has  collected  some  facts  regarding  those 
thus  received. 


I54I]  In  Strassburg  221 

pastors,  and  permission  was  now  given  them  to  cele- 
brate the  Supper.  Calvin's  organising  genius  showed 
its  power  at  once.  To  the  ''little  Church,"  as  he  de- 
scribes it,  he  preached  four  times  a  week.  The  com- 
munion he  administered  monthly/ — a  frequency  that 
he  had  vainly  recommended  to  Geneva.  In  spite  of 
criticism  and  opposition,  he  established  a  vigorous 
ecclesiastical  discipline;  and,  though  the  congregation 
was  under  the  control  of  the  civil  and  religious  author- 
ities of  Strassburg,  he  succeeded,  thanks  doubtless  to 
the  foreign  character  of  its  membership,  in  rendering 
the  exercise  of  that  discipline  an  independent  ecclesi- 
astical act.  So  far  did  he  carry  it  that  he  not  only  for- 
bade the  communion  to  the  unworthy,  but  he  required 
all  who  would  partake  of  the  Supper  to  present  them- 
selves to  him  for  a  previous  spiritual  interrogation. 
Such  an  examination  Calvin  thought  the  only  proper 
substitute  for  the  Roman  confessional.^  He  built  up 
an  orderly,  disciplined  congregation.  Under  his  min- 
istry it  grew  in  influence,  and  his  work  was  distinguished, 
also,  by  its  success  in  winning  Anabaptists  not  only  of 
the  city,  but  of  the  region  about,  to  his  way  of  thinking. 
Among  the  trophies  of  this  zeal  were  one  of  the  Neth- 
erlandish propagators  of  this  faith  with  whom  he  had 
vainly  debated  at  Geneva,  and  Jean  Stordeur,  then 
husband  of  the  woman  whom  Calvin  was  later  to 
marry. 

Probably  Calvin's  most  interesting,  though  not  his 


'  Hemiinjard,  v.   iii,   112,   145.     It  was  celebrated  "according  to 
the  rite  of  the  city." 

^  Ibid.,  V.  291;    vi.  200,  223;    compare  Doumergue,  ii.  412,  413. 


222  John  Calvin  [1538- 

most  original,  labour  in  behalf  of  the  ''little  Church" 
was  the  development  of  its  liturgy, — a  form  which,  es- 
tablished with  considerable  modifications  in  Geneva 
on  his  return,  became  the  general  model  of  Reformed, 
as  distinguished  from  Lutheran  and  Anglican  worship, 
and  is  the  primary  source  from  which  the  type  of  ser- 
vice famihar  in  the  churches  of  England,  Scotland,  and 
America  that  trace  their  spiritual  ancestry  in  large  part 
to  Cahdn  is  derived.  Here,  as  in  much  else  that  Calvin 
did,  he  drew  from  the  best  that  was  at  hand  rather  than 
created  outright;  but  the  result  bore  the  stamp  of  his 
impressive  spiritual  personality.'  Recent  investigation 
has  shown  that  the  form  of  public  worship  at  Strass- 
burg  had  been  gradually  modified,  largely  under  the 
influence  of  Bucer,  from  the  revised  translation  of  the 
Roman  mass  introduced  by  Diebold  Schwarz,  in  1524, 
till  it  had  acquired  probably  by  1537,  and  certainly  by 
1539,  the  form  of  which  Calvin  made  use.  Calvin's 
work  in  preparing  this  first  draft  of  his  liturgy  was 
essentially  that  of  a  translator.  The  order  is  identical 
with  that  of  Bucer,  and  the  form  of  words  is  largely 
the  same.  But  Calvin  added  not  a  Uttle  in  brief 
phrases  and  modifications  of  expression  which  gave 
to  the  original  German  service  a  happy  adaptation  to 
the  use  of  French-speaking  worshippers. 
As  employed  at  Strassburg,  in  1539,  Calvin's  service, 


*  The  subject  has  been  opened  as  never  before  by  Alfred  Erichson, 
Die  Calvinische  und  die  AUstrasshurgische  GoUesdienstordnung,  Strass- 
burg, 1894,  who  perhaps  allows  too  Uttle  to  Calvin  though  clearly 
making  out  his  main  contention.  It  is  largely  treated  by  Doumergue, 
ii.  488-504. 


1541]  In  Strassburg  223 

like  that  of  Buccr  from  which  it  was  taken,  began  with 
the  Invocation  and  the  famous  Confession  still  in  use  in 
many  of  the  Reformed  Churches  of  the  continent,  cor- 
responding to,  though  far  from  identical  with,  that  of 
the  AngUcan  worship.  Next  followed  the  announce- 
ment of  absolution  to  all  who  repent  and  ''seek  Jesus 
Christ  for  their  salvation."  Then  the  first  table  of  the 
Decalogue— that  is  the  first  four  Commandments- 
was  sung  by  the  congregation.^  Upon  this  followed  a 
brief  form  of  prayer  for  forgiveness  and  for  strength  to 
keep  the  divine  law,  succeeded  by  the  singing  of  the 
remaining  Commandments.  A  short  form  of  prayer 
for  spiritual  illumination  was  then  followed  by  the 
central  feature  of  the  service,  the  reading  of  the  "Word 
of  God"  and  its  exposition  in  the  sermon.  That  com- 
pleted, there  followed  the  long,  Uturgical  petition  of 
general  supplication,  ending  in  the  Lord's  Prayer. 
This  was  succeeded  by  the  singing  of  the  Apostles' 
Creed  or  of  a  Psalm,  and  the  service  concluded  with  the 
Aaronic  benediction.^ 

It  may  be  well  to  note  the  principal  changes  made  in 
this  service  by  Calvin  when  introduced  into  Genevan  use 
on  his  return  to  that  city,^— the  more  that  they  illustrate 
a  principal  characteristic  of  his  thought  on  liturgical 
usages.  Most  of  these  modifications  were  in  the  di- 
rection of  approximation  to  the  relatively  undeveloped, 
yet  more  radically  non-Roman,  service  which  Farel  had 
established  in  Geneva  when  the  Reformation  gained 


I  Doubtless  in  the  rhymed  form  to  be  found  in  Opera,  vi.  221. 
^  Numbers  vi.  24-26.     Text  in  part  in  Opera,  vi.  174,  175;   Erichson 
and  Doumergue,  op.  cit. 
3  Full  text,  Opera,  vi.  161-224. 


224 


John  Calvin  [1538- 


control  in  1536,  and  that  doubtless  continued  in  use 
till  Calvin's  return.  With  this  end  in  view,  against  his 
own  preference/  he  omitted  the  promise  of  absolution, 
as  offensive  by  its  apparent  Romanism  to  some  more 
strict  than  he.  He  substituted  the  singing  of  a  Psalm 
for  the  twofold  chanting  of  the  Commandments  and 
the  intermediate  prayer.  As  Farel  had  done,  he  now 
gave  room  for  extempore  prayer,  saying  of  the  petition 
before  the  sermon,  ''The  form  is  at  the  discretion  of  the 
minister."  At  first  he  substituted  an  enlarged  para- 
phrase of  the  Lord's  Prayer  in  the  body  of  the  general 
petition  following  the  sermon  for  its  literal  repetition  at 
its  conclusion,  but  later  restored  it.  For  the  chanting 
of  the  Apostles'  Creed  he  substituted  that  of  a  Psalm.^ 
These  modifications  are  not  inconsiderable,  though  they 
do  not  affect  the  general  order,  dignity,  and  simplicity 
of  the  service,  or  its  resemblance  to  the  Strassburg 
original  to  which  Calvin  was  indebted;  but  they  show 
that,  within  the  Hmits  imposed  by  the  rejection  of  what 
he  deemed  unscriptural  or  superstitious,  Calvin  felt 
that  public  worship  might  be  modified  and  adjusted  to 
meet  local  needs  and  even  prejudices.  As  between  a 
fixed  liturgy  and  free  prayer  he  evidently  had  none  of 
the  scruples  which  later  controversy  was  to  develop 
among  his  spiritual  disciples  in  England,  Scotland,  and 


^  Opera,  xa.  213;  Doumergue,  ii.  502.  Doumergue  remarks:  "it 
was  accommodated  to  the  worship  of  Geneva  to  such  a  degree  that 
the  litxirgy  deserves  the  title  of  Genevese  much  more  than  of  Cal- 
vinist." 

^  Doumergue,  ii.  746,  shows  that  the  Apostles'  Creed  was  recited  at 
Geneva  at  the  close  cA  Lord's  Prayer,  ending  the  general  petition. 


I54I]  In  Strassburg  225 

America;    and  his  Genevan  form  of  worship,  at  least, 
was  a  happy  combination  of  both. 

A  service  of  a  yet  more  wide- reaching  character  done 
by  Cah'in  for  the  Strassburg  congregation  of  which  he 
was  pastor,  and  through  it  to  the  Reformed  churches 
generally,  was  the  establishment  of  the  singing  of  Psalms 
in  French.  The  part  that  the  hymns  of  Luther  played 
in  the  German  Reformation  is  well  known.  But  not  all 
reformers  had  so  recognised  the  value  of  song.  Zwingli 
had  wholly  done  away  with  it  at  Zurich,  and  the  earliest 
French  Protestants  made  no  use  of  hymns.'  Farel's 
circle  felt  the  value  of  songs,  at  least  as  a  means  of 
attacking  Roman  behefs,  if  not  of  public  worship,  and 
a  little  volume  of  such  popular  compositions  was  printed 
at  Neuchatel  in  1533.''  But  the  most  positive  step 
toward  the  introduction  of  the  hymn  into  French- 
speaking  Protestant  worship  was  that  taken  by  Farel 
and  Calvin  in  the  Articles  of  January,  1537.^  Not  till 
he  came  to  Strassburg  was  Calvin  able  to  carry  the  in- 
tentions therein  expressed  into  practice.  He  acted  with 
his  accustomed  vigor,  aided  doubtless  by  the  example 
of  the  German- speaking  churches  of  the  city,  in  which 
singing  was  the  rule.  Within  two  months  of  the  be- 
ginning of  his  pastorate,  the  ''little  Church"  was  singing 
Psalms;  and,  in  1539,  he  published  a  brief  collection, 
containing  eighteen  Psalms  and  three  other  compo- 


^  Doumergue  has  an  admirable  discussion  of  Calvin's  relation  to  music 
in  worship,  ii.  505-524. 

*  Ibid.,  p.  506;  Rilliet  and  Dufour,  Le  catechisme  franfais  de  Calvin, 
p.  CO. 

3  Ante,  p.  192. 


226  John  Calvin  [1538- 

sitions  in  French  verse, — eight  of  them  by  Clement 
Marot,  whose  poetic  gifts  were  to  make  him  the  Psakn- 
translator  above  all  others  of  French  Protestantism; 
but  seven  of  the  pieces  from  the  pen  of  Calvin  himself.^ 
Calvin's  own  composition,  if  not  of  high  poetic  order, 
was  dignified,  clear,  and  far  removed  from  doggerel. 
Indeed,  in  his  own  estimate,  he  had  something  of  the 
poetic  spirit,  and  in  youth,  Hke  many  another  young 
man,  tried  his  hand  at  verse. ^  But,  as  later  editions  of 
the  Psalter  were  issued,  Calvin's  critical  taste  led  him  to 
substitute  increasingly  Marot's  more  inspired  compo- 
sitions, as  they  were  put  forth,  for  his  own.  Though 
chiefly  drawn  from  the  Psalms,  Calvin  would  not  con- 
fine the  service  of  song  to  the  rhymed  words  of  Scripture. 
The  Genevan  liturgy  of  1545  contains,  besides  nine 
Psalms,  the  Nunc  Dimittis  of  Simeon,  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments versified,  and  a  free  hymn  of  "salutation  to 
Christ."^  The  later  Puritan  restriction  to  the  words  of 
the  Bible  was  evidently  not  of  Calvin's  making.  On  the 
other  hand,  whatever  may  have  been  Calvin's  feeling 
toward  the  organ  as  an  instrument  of  music,  he  did  not 
regard  its  use  as  appropriate  in  pubHc  worship  because 
of  its  tendency  to  take  the  thought  of  the  congregation 
from  the  words  of  the  hymn.^  Far  from  being  an  enemy 
of  song  in  Christian  worship,  Calvin  was  the  great 
supporter  and  advocate  of  the  use  of  the  Psalm  in  the 
Reformed  churches. 


I  Doumergue,  ii.  511. 

^  Ihid.,  p.  510,  quoting  Opera,  xvi.  488. 

3  Opera,  vi.  211-224. 

*  Doumergue,  ii.  521,  quoting  Opera,  xxx.  259. 


I54I]  In  Strassburg  227 

While  Calvin  was  thus  busily  engaged  in  Strassburg 
as  a  pastor,  he  was  developing  a  like  activity  as  a  teacher, 
so  that,  with  the  additional  burden  of  a  large  corre- 
spondence and  his  constant  struggle  with  poverty,  his 
days  must  have  been  full  indeed.  Theological  lectures 
had  been  given  at  Strassburg '  since  the  introduction 
of  the  Reformation;  and  since  1532,  in  formal  fashion, 
by  Bucer,  Capito,  and  Hcdio  in  the  choir  of  the  ca- 
thedral. As  systematised  by  Johann  Sturm,  in  the  month 
of  Calvin's  arrival,  the  school  curriculum  of  Strassburg 
included  not  merely  elementary  teaching,  and  advanced 
courses  in  Greek,  Latin,  Hebrew,  Mathematics,  and 
Law,  but  was  crowned  by  instruction  in  theology  given 
by  the  Strassburg  ministers  of  whom  mention  has  been 
made.  The  orderly,  thorough,  and  progressive  educa- 
tional constitution  of  Strassburg  must  have  impressed 
Calvin  profoundly  and  have  influenced  his  later  action 
at  Geneva.  Naturally  the  Strassburg  pastors,  to  whom 
theological  instruction  was  committed,  wished  the  aid 
of  the  author  of  the  Institutes,  and,  in  January,  1539, 
Calvin  began  his  work,='  at  first  without  compensation, 
and  from  May  onward  with  the  modest  honorarium  of 
which  mention  has  been  made.  The  form  of  instruction 
in  theology  was  by  BibHcal  exposition,  and  the  natural 
supposition  would  be  that  the  first  theme  of  Calvin's 
pubHc  interpretation  was  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans. 
His  Commentary  on  this   letter  of    the  Apostle  to  the 


^  Here  again  the  sources  and  literature  have  been  well  summarised  by 
Doumergue,  ii.  428-440. 

^  Letter  to  Farel,  Herminjard,  v.  230;  Doumergue,  ii.  434.  He  was 
invited  by  Capito. 


228  John  Calvin  [1538- 

Gentiles,  the  preface  of  which  is  dated  October  18,  1539, 
was  published  at  Strassburg  by  Wendehn  Rihel  in 
March,  1540/  and  inaugurated  the  long  series  of  BibHcal 
expositions  which  were  to  give  to  Calvin  the  first  rank 
as  an  exegete  among  the  leaders  of  the  Reformation 
age.  But  adequate  testimony  seems  to  make  it  evident 
that  Calvin's  first  work  as  a  pubHc  instructor  was  the 
interpretation  of  the  Gospel  according  to  Saint  John, 
and  that  this  teaching  was  followed  by  the  exposition  of 
Corinthians.'' 

The  lectures  attracted  wide  attention,  and  drew  Cal- 
vin's fellow-countrymen  of  EvangeUcal  sentiments  in 
considerable  numbers  from  the  home-land  to  Strassburg, 
as  well  as  added  to  his  rising  fame  in  the  city  of  his 
residence.  And  to  all  who  came  he  was  able  to  show 
an  example,  in  miniature  it  is  true,  but  of  striking  clear- 
ness, of  a  Christian  community  as  he  beUeved  such  a 
community  should  be, — his  Church  of  earnest-minded 
exiles  for  their  faith,  well  disciplined,  clearly  taught, 
and  knit  together  in  common  worship,  while  their 
pastor  bore  his  share  in  the  larger  reUgious  interests  of 
Strassburg  and  extended  his  influence  far  beyond  the 
city's  walls. 

This  multiform  activity  as  pastor  and  teacher  was 
accompanied  by  a  productivity  in  authorship  that 
reveals  the  strength  and  concentration  with  which 
Calvin  was  able  to  work,  in  spite  of  frequent  physical 
disabiUty,  chiefly  manifested  in  attacks  of  headache, 

1  Opera,  xlix.  1-296;    Herminjard,  vi.  74-78;  compare  Ibid.,  v.  230. 

2  Johann  Sturm,  Quarti  Antipappi,  p.  20;  Herminjard,  v.  231; 
Doumergue,  ii.  434. 


C54IJ 


In  Strassburg  229 


indigestion,  and  nervous  irritability/ — a  condition  of 
health  largely  due,  doubtless,  to  his  overstrain  as  a 
student  in  Paris  and  Orleans,  and  the  anxieties  and 
burdens  borne  at  Geneva.  In  August,  1539,  he  brought 
out  a  carefully  revised  and  much  enlarged  edition  of  the 
Institutes.^  Though  still  lacking  much  of  the  logical 
perfection  of  arrangement  which  this  treatise  was  to 
acquire  in  the  final  edition  of  1559,  it  may  be  said  that, 
with  the  edition  of  1539,  the  Institutes  attained  their 
doctrinal  completeness.  The  treatment  was  every- 
where more  ample;  and  the  second  edition  now  pub- 
lished immediately  superseded  the  relatively  brief 
handbook  of  1536.  In  particular,  the  opening  sections, 
on  the  knowledge  of  God  and  of  ourselves,  were  greatly 
enlarged.  The  distinctions  between  natural  and  re- 
vealed theology  were  clearly  set  forth.  The  final 
authority  of  Scripture  was  firmly  based  on  the  inward 
testimony  of  the  Holy  Spirit  witnessing  to  the  reader 
that  it  is  God  who  speaks  through  the  words.  The 
original  state  of  man  and  the  consequences  of  the  fall 
were  discussed  with  much  greater  ampHtude.  Election 
and  reprobation  were  now  much  more  fully  and  sharply 
set  forth,  and  were  elaborately  defended  as  taught  in 
the  divine  revelation.  In  a  word,  without  essentially 
departing  in  any  fundamental  respect  from  the  theo- 
logical system  set  forth  in  the  edition  of  the  Institutes 
pubhshed  in  1536,  this  Strassburg  revision  of  three  years 
later  reveals  a  mind  of  greater  maturity,  more  elaborated 


*  Letters  to  Farel,  Herminjard,  v.  88,  270;    vi.  312,  313. 
«  Text,  Opera,  i.  253-1152. 


230  John  Calvin  [1538- 

thought  and  sharper  definition  of  the  doctrines  com- 
monly called  Calvinistic.  The  theologian  had  come  to 
his  full  stature. 

In  the  Institutes  of  1539,  the  doctrine  of  the  Lord's 
Supper,  that  burning  point  of  contention  between  the 
Lutherans  and  the  older  reformers  of  Switzerland,  is 
so  treated  that,  without  alteration  of  his  fundamental 
view,  Calvin's  language  is  less  opposed  to  the  conception 
of  Luther  than  in  the  earlier  edition.  This  irenic 
spirit,  anxious  to  present  a  basis  of  mutual  agreement 
between  the  contending  factions,  is  well  illustrated  in 
the  Petit  Traicte  de  la  sainde  Cene,^ — an  exposition 
designed  especially  for  those  without  technical  theo- 
logical training.  Written  in  Strassburg,  it  was  pub- 
hshed  at  Geneva  in  1541,  and  was  doubtless  designed 
for  circulation  in  France  quite  as  much  as  in  Switzer- 
land. Even  more  than  thus  far  at  Geneva,  Calvin's 
work  in  Strassburg  was  revealing  to  him  the  possibiHty 
of  exercising  a  moulding  influence  on  the  course  of  the 
Evangelical  movement  in  his  home-land  such  as  he  had 
always  desired. 

As  compared  with  his  Hfe  at  Geneva,  Calvin's  so- 
journ at  Strassburg  was  free  from  personal  controversies; 
but  an  exception  is  worthy  of  mention.  Caroli,  whose 
accusations  against  Farel  and  Calvin  have  already  been 
described,  had  returned  to  the  Roman  Church  after 
his  failure  to  make  good  his  charges  at  the  synods  of 
Lausanne  and  Bern  in  1537.     His  restless  spirit,  and 


^  Text,  Opera,  v.  429-460.  See  especially  his  remarks  about  Luther, 
Zwingli,  and  (Ecolampadius,  Ihii.,  457-460.  Compare  Henry,  i.  261- 
285. 


I54I]  In  Strassburg  231 

we  may  believe  his  semi-Protestantism,  was  not  satis- 
fied, however;  and,  in  July,  1539,  he  sought  Farel  and 
Viret,  by  whom  he  was  once  more  received  into  friend- 
ship.' Armed  with  a  letter  of  commendation  from 
Simon  Grynaeus,  professor  at  Basel,  to  Calvin,  he  came 
to  Strassburg,  about  the  beginning  of  October,  and  set 
about  to  win  the  approval  of  its  ministers  and  pro- 
fessors. At  Bucer's  request,  as  having  been  already  in 
controversy  with  Caroli,  Calvin  did  not  meet  him  face 
to  face;  ""  and  Caroli,  anxious  to  excuse  his  recent 
reconciliation  with  Rome,  brought  up  in  discussion  with 
the  Strassburg  divines  Farel  and  Calvin's  refusal  to 
sign  the  three  ancient  creeds.  On  Caroli's  retirement 
from  the  conference- room,  Calvin  told  his  side  of  the 
late  controversy  to  the  Strassburg  ministers  and  teachers. 
They  regarded  Calvin  as  innocent  of  any  wrong  to 
Caroli,  though  his  refusal  to  subscribe  the  creeds  met 
their  disapproval.  A  long  Act  of  Reconciliation  was 
drawn  up  for  signature  by  Caroli  and  the  Strassburg 
divines,  in  which  he  assented  to  the  Augsburg  Con- 
fession, but  specified  many  peculiarities  of  his,  at  best, 
fluctuating  beliefs.  This  document  was  not  sent  to 
Calvin  for  signature  till  late  at  night;  and,  before  being 
seen  by  him,  it  had  received  the  approval  of  his  col- 
leagues. As  he  read  it,  he  saw  that  it  permitted  Caroli 
to  say  that  he  left  to  God's  judgment  "the  offences  by 


I  The  letters  regarding  this  incident  may  be  found  in  Herminjard,  v. 
352,  355,  370;  vi.  35,  40,  52.  It  is  suggestively  treated  by  Doumergue, 
ii.  397-405. 

*  Calvin's  letter  of  October  8th  to  Farel,  Herminjard,  vi.  52-58,  is  otu* 


232 


John  Calvin  [1538- 


which  he  had  been  forced  to  desertion"  of  the  Evan- 
gelical cause.  That  implied  that  Farel  and  Calvin  were 
blameworthy  for  his  lapse.  It  was  an  aggravating  and 
unjust  accusation.  Calvin  had  a  right  to  resent  it. 
But  he  did  much  more.  He  lost  all  control  of  himself. 
He  sought  Sturm,  and  his  colleagues,  Bucer  and  Mat- 
thias Zell.  In  words  of  the  utmost  excitement  and 
bitterness  he  declared  that  he  would  die  before  he  would 
sign.  He  rushed,  so  he  tells  Farel,  from  the  room;  but 
Bucer  followed  and  in  a  measure  calmed  him,  though 
his  return  home  was  succeeded  by  what  must  be  called 
an  attack  of  hysterics.  In  the  letter  which  recounts 
these  events,  he  blames  himself  severely  for  his  un- 
govemed  conduct;  but  he  blames  his  friend  Farel  no 
less  as  the  cause  of  his  woes.  Farel's  acceptance  of 
the  apparently  repentant  Caroli  should  not  have  been 
so  hasty.  Indeed,  in  the  mood  in  which  he  wrote,  the 
fault  seemed  to  him  more  that  of  Farel  than  of  Caroli, 
who  having  been  received  into  favour  must  now  be 
treated  with  kindness.  Calvin  succeeded  in  having  the 
objectionable  clause  erased,  and  signed  the  Reconcilia- 
tion; but  the  incident  is  one  to  be  borne  in  mind  in  a 
consideration  of  his  later  controversies.  He  was  liable 
to  violent  anger,  and  was  easily  aroused  to  high  nervous 
excitement,  and  in  this  state  was  unguarded  in  the 
extreme  in  what  he  said,  or  to  whom  he  expressed  his 
wrath.  He  clearly  recognised  his  own  fault ; '  but  it 
was  one  which  many  times  overcame  him,  and  obscured 


^  Doumergue,  ii.  401-405,  makes  this  incident  the  text  of  a  discussion, 
with  other  examples,  of  this  side  of  Calvin's  nature 


i54i]  In  Strassburg  233 

too  much  in  his  own  lifetime  and  in  later  recollection 
other,  and  much  more  attractive,  qualities  of  mind 
and  heart. 

It  is  pleasant  to  turn  from  this  incident  of  Calvin's 
life  in  Strassburg  to  one  of  a  more  intimate  and  personal 
nature, — his  marriage.  His  Hfe  of  study  and  of  exile, 
followed  by  the  stormy  months  at  Geneva,  had  not  been 
such  hitherto  as  to  turn  his  thoughts  toward  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  home.  He  had  not  been  without  com- 
panionship. His  younger  brother,  Antoinc,  and  his 
half-sister,  Marie,  had  accompanied  him  to  Geneva; 
and  the  former,  after  a  few  months'  delay,  followed  him 
to  Strassburg,  arriving  in  December,  1539,  and  con- 
tinuing thenceforth,  as  had  probably  been  the  case  at 
Geneva,  a  member  of  Calvin's  household  as  long  as  he 
remained  in  the  city.^  In  the  comparative  quiet  of 
Strassburg,  notwithstanding  his  poverty, — and  perhaps 
in  the  eyes  of  some  of  his  friends,  though  not  of  Calvin 
himself,  by  reason  of  that  poverty, — the  question  of 
marriage  soon  began  to  assume  importance.  His  former 
associate  Viret  had  married  in  October,  1538.  That 
example,  and  that  of  the  Strassburg  ministry,  together 
with  the  advice  of  Bucer,  may  have  had  weight.  At  all 
events,  it  was  the  desirability  of  marriage  in  itself  con- 
sidered rather  than  affection  for  any  one  person  that 
awoke  the  thought  of  his  own  union  in  Calvin's  mind. 
He  apparently  first  presented  the  matter  to  his  bachelor 
friend,  Farel,  in  a  letter  now  lost;   and  writing,  a  Uttle 


*  Marie  seems  not  to  have  gone  to  Strassburg.  She  ultimately 
married  Charies  Costan,  probably  of  Geneva  {Opera,  xx.  300),  and 
may  have  been  married  before  Calvin  left  Geneva. 


234 


John  Calvin  [1538- 


later,  to  that  intimate  correspondent  in  May,  1539,  he 
thus  described  the  wife  that  he  desired:^ — 

I  am  not  of  that  insane  class  of  lovers  who,  once  capti- 
vated by  beauty,  kiss  even  its  faults.  The  only  comeliness 
that  attracts  me  is  this: — that  she  be  modest,  complaisant, 
unostentatious,  thrifty,  patient,  and  likely  to  be  careful  of 
my  health. 

To  appreciate  the  unromantic  and  rather  self-cen- 
tred ideal  here  set  forth  by  a  man  who  had  not  reached 
thirty  years  of  age,  we  must  remember  the  century  in 
which  he  Hved,  with  its  low  estimate  of  the  position  of 
women  as  compared  with  their  place  in  our  own,  and 
the  absorption  which  Calvin  felt  in  the  reformatory 
task  that  was  before  him.  Such  as  it  was,  his  ideal 
was  to  be  reahsed,  but  not  immediately.''  Nine  months 
later,  in  February,  1540,  Calvin  informed  Farel^  that 
marriage  had  been  proposed  to  him  in  behalf  of  a  well- 
to-do  and  nobly  born  young  woman, — the  agents  being 
apparently  the  girl's  brother  and  brother's  wife,  who 
were  devotedly  attached  to  him  and  wished  their 
sister  married  to  one  they  so  much  admired.     Calvin 


I  Herminjard,  v.  314;  Doumergue,  ii.  448.  Doumergue,  Ihid.,  pp. 
441-478,  has  treated  Calvin's  marriage  with  characteristic  thoroughness. 
See  also  Henry,  i.  407-423;  Bonnet,  Idelette  de  Bure,  in  Bulletin  de  la 
Soc.  de  riiist.  du  Prot.  frangais,  iv.  636-646  (1856);  A.  Lang,  Das 
hausliclie  Lehen  Johannes  Calvins,  in  the  Allgemeine  ZeUting,  June  16- 
22,  and  separately,  Munich,  1893. 

^  Apparently  Farel  came  to  Strassburg  in  June,  1539,  for  some  mar- 
riage project  of  Calvin  of  which  we  have  no  definite  knowledge.  Her- 
minjard,  vi.  168. 

3  Ibid.,  vi.  167. 


I54I]  In  Strassburg  235 

insisted  that  she  learn  his  native  French.  She  asked 
time  to  think  it  over;  a  request  which  he  seems  to  have 
looked  upon  as  a  divinely  appointed  way  of  deliver- 
ance from  a  marriage  in  which  inequality  of  birth  and 
education  might  have  clouded  the  prospect  of  happi- 
ness. Calvin  took  a  prompt  way  to  break  off  further 
negotiations.  He  sent  his  brother,  Antoine,  to  ask  in 
his  behalf  the  hand  of  another  and  much  poorer  young 
woman,  "who,  if  she  answers  to  her  reputation,  would 
bring  dowry  enough  without  any  money."  So  hopeful 
was  he  that  this  vicarious  wooing  would  prosper  that 
he  wished  Farel  to  plan  to  perform  the  ceremony  not 
later  than  the  tenth  of  the  next  month.  Such  confidence 
was,  as  may  readily  be  imagined,  unwarranted.  The 
young  woman  delayed;  and  when  at  last,  in  the  fol- 
lowing June,  she  consented  to  an  engagement,  Calvin 
heard  such  reports  of  her  that  he  speedily  released  her.  ^ 
In  all  this  there  seems  Httle  sentiment  save  an  honest 
fear  lest  he  marry  above  his  station  in  life  and  with  one 
unsympathetic  with  his  aims.  But  the  search  was  evi- 
dently continued,  for  on  August  17,  1540,  Christopher 
Fabri  wrote  Calvin  fromThonon,  bidding  him  salute 
the  wife  whom  they  had  heard  he  had  recently  married.^ 
The  wife  to  whom  he  was  at  last  joined,  ''with  the  aid 
and  advice  of  Bucer,"  was  "a  grave  and  honourable 


^Herminjard,  vi.  191,  199,  238.  It  is  possible  that  the  person  to 
whom  he  became  engaged  in  June  is  not  identical  with  the  poor  girl 
sought  in  February-;  but  I  have  followed  what  seems  the  more  probable 
interpretation  of  Calvin's  letters. 

^  Ibid.,  vi.  275.  Henninjard  and  Doumergue  seem  justified  in  re- 
garding this  letter  as  fixing  the  month  of  the  marriage,  though  many 
earlier  scholars  placed  it  a  month  or  more  later. 


236  John  Calvin  [1538- 

woman/'  Idelette  de  Bure,  widow  of  Calvin's  Anabap- 
tist convert,  Jean  Stordeur  of  Liege,  who  had  died  some 
time  before  of  the  plague.'  The  ceremony  was  prob- 
ably simple,  and  Farel  himself,  there  is  reason  to  sup- 
pose, officiated. =" 

Calvin's  married  Ufe  has  left  fewer  traces  than  could 
be  wished  in  his  correspondence;  but  enough  remains 
to  show  that  husband  and  wife  lived  on  terms  of  cor- 
dial affection  and  of  mutual  trust.  In  character  and 
devotion  she  was  to  him  all  that  his  ideal  of  a  wife  had 
pictured.  To  Viret  he  wrote  of  her  immediately  after 
her  death  :^ — 

I  have  been  bereaved  of  the  best  companion  of  my  life, 
who,  if  our  lot  had  been  harsher,  would  have  been  not  only 
the  willing  sharer  of  exile  and  poverty,  but  even  of  death. 
While  she  lived,  she  was  the  faithful  helper  of  my  ministry. 
From  her  I  never  experienced  the  slightest  hindrance. 

That  she  was  a  woman  of  unusual  Christian  faith, 
and  not  without  force  and  some  degree  of  individuaUty, 
the  story  of  her  death-bed  bears  witness.^  But  we 
know  far  less  of  her  and  of  her  influence  on  her 
husband  than  we  desire.  At  best,  she  stands  in  the 
shadow  of  his  much  clearer  seen  personality. 

'  Colladon,  Life,  Opera,  xxi.  62.  Lefranc  conjectures  that  she  may 
have  been  of  the  family  of  de  Bures  of  Noyon,  and  hence  that  the 
marriage  may  not  have  been  "the  result  of  a  meeting  wholly  due  to 
chance."  Jeunesse,  p.  191.  There  were  Bures,  however,  at  Liege, 
Doumergue,  ii.  463.  Idelette  had  a  son  and  a  daughter  by  her  first 
husband. 

^  Doumergue,  ii.  463. 

3  Opera,  xiii.  230;  compare  Ibid.,  viii.  73,  "sitjgularis  exempli  femina." 

'*  Calvin  to  Farel,  Ibid.,  p.  228. 


1541]  In  Strassburg  237 

Calvin's  married  life,  though  happy  in  mutual  com- 
panionship, was  one  of  sorrow  through  the  trials  in- 
cident to  human  experience.  His  only  child,'  Jacques, 
born  July  28,  1542,  lived  but  a  few  days;  and  his  wife's 
health  was  always  feeble  after  the  birth  of  their  son. 
On  March  29,  1549,  she,  too,  was  taken  from  him.  In 
spite  of  the  severe  repression  of  Calvin's  references  to 
his  affliction, — a  fortitude  of  mind  worthy  of  admira- 
tion in  the  judgment  of  his  intimate  friends  at  the  time,"" 
— it  would  be  an  injustice  to  regard  his  sense  of  bereave- 
ment as  other  than  profound  and  lasting.  His  mar- 
riage, though  having  Httle  of  romance  in  its  begin- 
nings, had  in  it  much  of  the  satisfaction  that  comes 
from  mutual  trust,  and  of  loving  absorption,  at  least 
on  the  part  of  the  wife,  in  the  other's  interests  and 
work. 

The  years  at  Strassburg,  so  fruitful  in  the  development 
of  Calvin's  intellectual  Hfe,  his  religious  programme 
and  his  personal  experience,  were  no  less  significant  in 
their  enlargement  of  his  acquaintance  with  the  men 
and  affairs  of  the  Reformation  in  its  broader  aspects. 
He  was  now  reckoned  as  one  of  the  leaders  in  an  influ- 
ential German  Protestant  city,  trusted  by  its  authorities, 
and  accredited  as  its  representative  in  discussions  of 
the  highest  importance.  As  such  he  now  came  into 
intimate  contact  with  the  problems  which  pressed  for 
solution  in  the  land  of  the  Reformation's  birth,  and 


'  Many  writers,  among  them  Bonnet  and  Lang,  have  thought  that 
Calvin  had  three  children;  but  Doumergue,  ii.  470-473,  shows  conclu- 
sively that  there  was  but  one. 

*  E.g.  Viret  to  Calvin,  April  10,  1549,  Opera,  xiii.  233. 


238  John  Calvin  [1538- 

gained  the  lasting  friendship  of  one  of  its  earliest 
champions, — PhiHp  Melanchthon/ 

Calvin's  stay  at  Strassburg  coincided  with  the  period 
when  the  Emperor  Charles  V.,  long  hindered  from  crush- 
ing Protestantism  by  the  wars  with  France  and  with 
the  Turks,  as  well  as  by  the  strength  of  the  Schmal- 
kaldic  league,  and  not  yet  ready  for  the  open  at- 
tack which  was  to  bring  him  seeming  victory  in  1547, 
was  attempting  to  secure  a  basis  of  compromise  between 
the  divided  wings  of  Christendom.  Preliminary  to 
the  Frankfort  Reichstag  of  April,  1539,  an  imperial 
conference  w^as  held  in  the  same  city  in  February.  At 
the  Reichstag  it  was  agreed  that  a  friendly  discussion 
looking  toward  "Christian  union"  should  be  held  be- 
tween the  representatives  of  both  types  of  faith.  In 
compliance,  after  a  futile  meeting  at  Hagenau,  in  June, 
1540,  eleven  champions  from  each  side  debated  at 
Worms  in  November;  and,  after  adjournment  in  Jan- 
uary, 1 541,  the  discussion  was  continued,  in  April, 
under  the  presidency  of  the  Emperor  himself  at  Regens- 
burg.  The  outcome  was  a  failure.  No  agreement  was 
reached ;  but  the  attempt  is  one  of  the  reckoning  points 
of  the  German  Reformation,  and  at  all  these  meetings, 
except  that  of  the  Reichstag,  Calvin  was  present.  In 
the  two  last  mentioned  he  bore  a  prominent  part. 

Calvin's  visit  to  the  Frankfort  conference,  for  which 


I  The  chief  source  for  this  episode  are  Calvin's  letters  to  Farel.  A 
brief  sketch  is  that  of  Kampschulte,  i.  327-342.  Doumergue,  ii.  525- 
649,  in  a  much  ampler  treatment  sharply  criticises  Kampschulte,  and 
points  out  errors  into  which  he  fell.  For  Calvin's  tracts  growing  out 
of  these  experiences,  see  Opera,  v.  461-684. 


I54I]  In  Strassburg 


239 


he  left  Strassburg  in  company  with  Johann  Sturm  and 
other  friends  on  February  21,  1539,  was  undertaken 
partly  to  secure  aid  for  his  persecuted  French  fellow- 
believers,  in  whose  behalf  Bucer  was  already  labouring 
at  Frankfort,  and  partly  to  make  the  acquaintance  of 
Melanchthon.'  He  went  in  no  official  capacity.  In 
the  endeavour  in  behalf  of  French  Protestants  he  had 
little,  if  any,  success;  but  he  began  a  friendship  with 
Melanchthon  which  was  to  be  one  of  the  most  winsome 
of  his  relationships.  Unhke  in  so  many  characteristics, 
and  differing  more  and  more  on  the  theological  doctrine 
of  predestination,  the  severely  logical,  courageous,  firm 
young  Frenchman,  and  the  more  timid,  cautious,  and 
compromising  elder  German  scholar,  found  much  in 
common.  Their  correspondence,  though  not  frequent 
and  not  without  expressions  of  disagreement,  shows, 
especially  on  Calvin's  part,  great  consideration,  affec- 
tion, and  respect,  and  this  continued  Calvin's  feehng 
always.  Calvin's  patience  and  confidence  in  his  friend 
are  exhibited  in  a  most  attractive  light.  To  Melanch- 
thon he  dedicated  his  reply  to  Pighius  in  1543,  and, 
three  years  later,  he  pubHshed  and  commended  a  French 
translation  of  Melanchthon's  Loci  Communes.'^  In  any 
judgment  of  Calvin's  character,  his  friendships  not  only 
with  such  intimates  as  Farel,  or  with  such  fellow- 
workers  as  Bucer  and  Sturm,  but  with  a  man  with 


'^  He  described  his  experiences  and  observations  in  a  long  letter  to 
Farel,  March  16,  1539,  Herminjard,  v.  247-260. 

2  Opera,  vi.  229,  ix.  847.  Their  relations  are  interestingly  discussed 
by  Philip  Schaff,  History  of  the  Christian  Church,  vii.  385-398;  Dou- 
mergue,  ii.  545-561;  and  "Laxig,  Melanchthon  und  Calvin,  in  the  Reforni- 
irte  Kirclien-Zeitung,  February  21-March  28,  1897. 


240  John  Calvin  [1538- 

whom  possible  points  of  disagreement  were  as  numer- 
ous as  with  Melanchthon,  must  be  no  less  regarded 
than  such  scenes  as  have  been  narrated  in  connection 
with  Caroli. 

Calvin's  letters  describing  his  obsers^ations  and  ex- 
periences at  Frankfort  and  Hagenau'  reveal  him  as  a 
keen  observer  and  a  penetrating  critic  of  persons  and 
parties  in  Germany,  and,  indeed,  of  the  whole  Euro- 
pean religious  situation.  He  was  evidently  using  his 
opportunities  for  acquaintance  to  the  full;  and  a  man 
of  such  statesmanlike  grasp  of  conditions  as  Calvin 
shows  himself  could  not  long  remain  without  fitting 
employment  for  his  abiUties  in  a  representative  capac- 
ity. At  the  Colloquy  in  Worms,  Calvin  appeared, 
therefore,  not  as  a  spectator,  but  as  a  delegate  of  Strass- 
burg,  and  a  representative,  also,  of  Duke  Ernst  of  Liine- 
burg.  Here  he  did  much  to  prepare  the  Protestant 
case  in  preliminary  discussion.^^  In  the  brief  public 
debate  permitted  before  adjournment  to  Regensburg 
he  bore  no  part,  the  chief  disputants  being  Melanch- 
thon and  Luther's  old  enemy,  Eck,  of  whom  the 
cultivated  Frenchman  fonned  a  most  unfavourable 
opinion.3 

To  the  final  Colloquy,  that  at  Regensburg,  Calvin 
went   with   Bucer  and   the   others  of  the   Strassburg 


^  Notably  those  in  Herrninjard,  v.  247-260;    vi.  234-241,  256-261. 
Compare  the  remarks  of  Kampschulte,  i.  329. 

^  Opera,  xxi.  269-271. 

3  "Picture  to  yourself  the  figure  of  a  barbarous  sophist,  vaunting  him 
self  stupidly  among  the  unlearned,  and  you  will  have  half  of  Eck," 
letter  to  Farel,  Herminjard,  vii.  10.       For  Calvin's  account  of  his  ex- 
periences at  Worms  see  Ibid.,  vi.  405-415;  vii.  8-12. 


[54i]  In  Strassburg 


241 


party,  arriving  on  March  10,  1541.  Melanchthon  had 
urged  the  willing  Strassburg  authorities  to  send  him, 
as  having  "a  great  reputation  among  learned  men,"' 
but  he  went  with  reluctance.  He  felt  himself  unfitted 
for  the  task,='  and  he  probably  had  become  convinced, 
also,  that  little  good  was  to  be  expected  from  the  dis- 
cussions. His  stay  was  a  time  of  grievous  anxiety. 
The  news  from  home  distressed  him.  That  scourge 
of  the  age,  the  plague,  devastated  Strassburg,  and,  in 
March,  cost  the  Hves  of  two  of  the  young  members  of 
his  household  to  whom  he  was  greatly  attached,  Claude 
F^ray,  a  promising  Greek  scholar,  and  Feray's  pupil, 
a  Norman  nobleman,  Louis  de  Richebourg.  No  one 
can  read  the  touching  and  Christian  letter  which  Calvin 
wrote  to  the  father  of  the  boy  without  being  impressed 
with  Calvin's  warmth  of  feeling  and  genuine  affection 
for  those  who  stood  in  intimate  relations  with  him.^ 
His  grief  was  profound,  and  his  distress  was  increased 
by  anxiety  for  his  wife  and  brother  yet  in  peril.  Yet 
through  these  weeks  of  sadness  and  anxiety,  Cahan's 
keenness  of  observation  of  men  and  things  continued 
unabated.  He  was  somewhat  in  the  background  of  the 
more  public  discussions.  Anxious  to  secure  concihation, 
if  possible,  the  Emperor  had  obtained  the  appointment 

I  Opera,  v.  Ivi;  Doumergue,  ii.  626. 

^To  Farel,  Herminjard,  vii.  41.  Calvin's  letters  continue  of  great 
interest.  See  IbU.,  pp.  48-51,  55-64,  87-90,  105-107,  111-116,  150- 
152;  also  Bucer's,  p.  157.  On  the  course  of  the  Colloquy  see  Paul 
Vetter,  Die  Rehgionsverhandlungen  auf  dent  Reichstage  zu  Regensburg, 
Jena,  1889, 

3 Herminjard,  vii.  66-73  (to  Richebourg);  see  also  Ibid.,  pp.  55,  63 
(to  Farel). 


242 


John  Calvin  [1538- 


of  the  moderate  Cardinal  Gasparo  Contarini  as  papal 
nuncio,  and,  as  negotiators  for  the  Protestant  side, 
Melanchthon,  Bucer,  and  Johann  Pistorius, — all  con- 
ciliatory men.  Opposed  to  them  were  Eck,  Johann 
Gropper,  and  JuHus  Pflug.  The  Protestant  represen- 
tatives were  ready  to  concede  much, — too  much  to  suit 
Calvin's  strenuous  Evangehcalism, — but,  though  their 
plans  displeased  him,  for  Melanchthon  and  Bucer  as 
men  of  good  intention  he  had  the  highest  regard.^  But 
the  Colloquy  failed  of  its  purpose.  Agreement  could 
not  be  reached,  and  Calvin  gladly  obtained  permission 
to  leave  before  its  close.  On  June  25,  1541,  he  was 
once  more  in  his  home  in  Strassburg. 

Throughout  the  discussions  at  Regensburg,  which  he 
followed  so  eagerly,  Calvin  was  engaged  in  an  effort  to 
obtain  some  reUef  for  the  persecuted  Protestants  of 
France.  Just  what  this  involved  has  been  debated  by 
historians  with  a  good  deal  of  diversity  of  opinion.  But 
there  seems  no  reason  to  doubt  that  he  regarded  the  cul- 
tivation of  cordial  relations  between  the  German  Protes- 
tants and  Francis  I.  as  one  of  the  most  promising  means 
of  aid  to  his  French  fellow-behevers.^  Such  relations 
almost  of  necessity  impHed  an  alliance  with  France  as 
against  the  Emperor,  and  it  was  because  of  efforts  to 
this  end  that  Calvin  was  thanked  in  the  name  of  the 
King  as  well  as  inherown,in  July,  1 541,  by  no  less  a  per- 
sonage than  Marguerite  d'Angouleme.^     His  endeavors, 


*  Herminjard,    vii.  p.  115.      Contrast  Kampschulte's  interpretation, 
i.  337,  with  that  of  Doumergue,  ii.  637. 

*  Ihid.,  p.  151. 

3  Ibid.,  pp.  198-202. 


I54I]  In   Strassburg 


243 


joined  with  those  of  the  magistrates  of  Strassburg,  and 
of  the  Swiss  Protestants,  secured  from  the  Evangelical 
leaders  and  forces  of  Germany  gathered  at  Regcnsburg 
a  letter  to  the  French  King, — Calvin  had  wished  an 
embassy, — protesting  against  the  persecution  of  the 
Waldenses  and  of  others  of  the  Reformed  faith/  While 
not  so  conspicuous  at  Regensburg  and  the  other  Collo- 
quies as  Melanchthon  and  Bucer,  no  French  Protestant 
had  so  fully  become  a  figure  of  European  significance 
as  had  this  exile  for  his  religious  convictions.  Though 
his  real  stature  had  not  yet  been  reached,  the  events 
from,  the  publication  of  the  first  edition  of  the  Insti- 
tutes to  the  Colloquy  at  Regensburg  had  made 
Calvin  beyond  comparison  the  most  conspicuous  re- 
presentative of  the  Evangelical  interests  of  his  native 
land. 

Calvin's  labour  at  the  Colloquies  brought  him  into 
intimate  acquaintance  with  the  conditions  and  with 
many  of  the  chief  men  of  German  Protestantism. 
Luther,  indeed,  he  never  met;  and  that  greatest  of  the 
German  reformers  seems  to  have  known  comparatively 
little  about  him.  Calvin  treasured  highly,  however,  a 
word  of  greeting  and  of  approval  of  his  letter  to  Sa- 
doleto, — of  which  mention  will  be  made  in  the  next 
chapter, — which  came  to  him  through  Bucer  in  Octo- 
ber, 1539;''  and  there  w^ere  a  few  other  evidences  of 
goodwill  on  the  part  of  the  elder  reformer.  His  own 
high  estimate  of  Luther,  Calvin  often  expressed,  even 


^  Herminjard,  vii.  pp.  126-128. 

*  Opera,  xb.  402.     The  whole  subject  is  discussed  by  Doumergue, 
ii.  562-587. 


244  John  Calvin  [1536-1541] 

when  making  evident  the  differences  between  his  point 
of  view  and  that  of  the  Saxon  reformer.^ 

Yet  Calvin's  acquaintance  with  Germany  probably 
confirmed,  rather  than  weakened,  his  confidence  in  his 
own  programme  for  a  proper  regeneration  of  the 
Church.  He  admired  many  of  the  leaders  of  the  Ger- 
man Reformation;  but  he  disapproved  of  its  want  of 
ecclesiastical  discipline,  the  low  estimate  in  which  the 
ministry  was  held,  and  the  extent  to  which  the  churches 
were  dependent  on  civil  authority.^  He  had  learned 
much  during  his  years  in  Strassburg,  but  his  funda- 
mental principles  had  remained  unaltered. 


^  E.g.  Calvin  to  Bullinger,  November  25,  1544,  "I  have  frequently 
said,  even  if  he  should  call  me  a  devil,  I  should,  nevertheless,  render 
him  the  honour  of  recognising  him  as  an  eminent  servant  of  God." 
Henninjard,  ix.  374.     See  also  Opera,  vi.  250;   xii.  7. 

*  Compare  Kampschulte,  i.  339. 


CHAPTER  X 

CALVIN     RETURNS     TO     GENEVA. — ITS     ECCLESIASTICAL 
CONSTITUTION 

CALVIN  left  Geneva  in  the  spring  of  1538,  burning 
with  a  sense  of  personal  wrongs.'  He  felt  that 
he  had  been  cruelly  thrust  out  of  a  position  in  which 
he  had  stood  by  divine  appointment;  and  that  his  place, 
and  those  of  Farel  and  Coraud,  were  being  occupied  by 
"traitors  under  the  mask  of  pastors."  Of  these  min- 
isters, Henri  de  la  Mare  and  Jacques  Bernard,  though 
to  serve  the  Church  of  Geneva  after  Calvin's  return,  were 
weak  and  inferior  men;  and  while  Antoine  Mar- 
court  and  Jean  Morand,  whom  the  city  authorities  as- 
sociated with  them,  v/ere  men  of  greater  abilities,  and 
Marcourt  certainly  of  superior  if  not  always  judicious 
character,  all  were  to  show  themselves  inadequate  to 
the  task  before  them.  From  the  first,  their  difficulties 
were  many.    They  had  been  put  in  office  by  a  reaction 

'His  letters,  Herminjard,  v.-vii.,  or  Opera,  xb.,  xi.,  with  the  extracts  from 
the  Registres  du  Conseil,  of  Geneva,  Opera,  xxi.  227-282.  The  most 
recent  thorough  discussions  are  those  of  Cornelius,  pp.  192-353,  and  of 
Doumergue,  ii.  653-713.  See  also  J.  A.  Gautier,  Histoire  de  Geneve, 
completed  in  1713,  but  published  vol.  ii.  in  1896,  and  vol.  iii.  in 
1898;  J.  B.  G.  Galiffe,  in  Memaires  el  Documents  publics  par  la  Soc. 
de  mist,  de  Genhve,  xix.  262-283;  Kampschulte,  i.  342-412;  A.  Roget, 
Histoire  du  peuple  de  Geneve,  1870-1883,  i.  1 13-315;  ii.  1-84.  A  good 
brief  sketch  is  that  of  Eugene  Choisy,  La  theocratie  a  Geneve  au  temps 
de  Calvin,  pp.  36-62. 

[245] 


246  John  Calvin  [1541- 

against  the  strictness  and  independence  of  their  pre- 
decessors; and  such  a  reaction  was,  in  the  nature  of 
things,  followed  by  greater  Hcense  of  conduct  on  the 
part  of  the  populace.  In  spite  of  stringent  govern- 
mental enactments  and  good  advice  given  by  the  new 
preachers,  there  can  be  no  question  that  the  moral 
condition  of  Geneva  was  decidedly  lower — at  least  in 
outward  manifestation — than  under  Farel  and  Calvin. 
The  government,  moreover,  treated  the  ministers  as 
its  creatures;  and  they  in  turn  looked  up  to  it,  as  in 
the  other  Swiss  cantons,  as  the  authority  regulative 
of  Church  practice.'  The  ecclesiastical  independence 
which  Calvin  had  sought  was  gone. 

To  render  a  difficult  situation  more  trying,  the  party 
differences  which  had  been  so  evident  before  Farel  and 
Calvin's  banishment  still  persisted  with  unabated  in- 
tensity. That  of  Michel  Sept,  which  had  supported 
the  old  ecclesiastical  regime,  was  now  nicknamed  the 
''  Guillermins," — a  title  borrowed  from  Farel's  Christian 
name;  and  it  included,  undoubtedly,  the  more  religious 
elements  of  the  Genevan  population.^  That  such  a  party 
was  arrayed  against  the  new  preachers  made  their  posi- 
tion doubly  difficult ;  and  the  more  determined  "  Guil- 
lermins" proposed,  by  absenting  themselves  from  the 
Christmas  communion,  to  disown  the  existing  Genevan 
ministry.  Though  Farel  would  express  no  opinion,  he 
evidently  thought  well  of  the  plan;  but  at  this  juncture 
Calvin  showed  his  superiority  to  mere  party  leadership. 


'  E.g.  regarding  Christmas  and  feasts,  Opera,  xxi.  239.     Compare 
Doumergue,  ii.  661. 
^  Cornelius,  p.  203. 


1542]  Return  to  Geneva 


247 


He  urged  that  schism  be  avoided,  ''and  the  ministry  and 
sacraments  be  held  in  such  reverence  that  wherever 
they  [i.e.  Christians]  perceive  them  to  exist,  they  should 
judge  the  Church  to  be."  '  It  was  most  Christian  ad- 
vice; and  not  without  cost  to  himself,  for  it  was  anything 
but  popular  with  many  of  his  personal  friends,  as  well  as 
with  a  large  part  of  the  "  Guillermins. "  For  the  time 
being,  however,  the  party  in  power  in  Geneva  showed  it- 
self master  of  the  situation.  The  chief  intellectual  cen- 
tre of  the  "  Guillermin  "  faction  was  the  College,  taught 
by  Antoine  Saunier,  by  Calvin's  old  instructor,  Mathu- 
rin  Cordier,  and  others  friendly  to  the  banished  pastors. 
Two  of  its  younger  teachers,  having  shown  themselves 
hostile  to  the  preachers  and  the  new  ecclesiastical  ad- 
ministration, were  exiled  on  September  26,  1538;  and 
a  similar  fate  overtook  their  older  colleagues,  for  the 
same  reason,  on  December  26th.^  By  this  drastic  action 
and  other  banishments  the  "Guillermin"  cause  was 
greatly  lamed,  and  the  position  of  the  party  in  power 
and  of  its  preachers  much  strengthened — though  the 
effect  on  the  school  was  most  damaging.  Yet  their  hold 
on  the  Genevan  community  was  unsatisfactory  from  a 
religious  point  of  view;  and,  on  December  31st,  the 
four  preachers  offered  their  resignations  to  the  Little 
Council,  "since  we  can  no  longer  have  fruit  such  as 
we  desire  in  this  place,  matters  being  in  such  dis- 
order."     The  Council  refused  their   dismission  and 


^  Hemiinjard,  v.   i68,  169.     Letter  to  Farel  of  October  24,  1538. 
See  Ibid.,  p.  449. 

'  Registres  du  Conseil,  xxxii.  144,  248,  251;   Opera,  xxi.  236,  240. 


248  John  Calvin  [1541- 

took  measures  for  active  support  by  further  punish- 
ing their  critics/ 

The  policy  of  refusal  to  accept  the  Supper  at 
the  hands  of  the  new  preachers,  which  was  the 
immediate  occasion  of  the  ''Guillermin"  defeat,  had 
met  with  Calvin's  disapproval,  and  time  was  over- 
coming his  sense  of  personal  injury.  Bad  as  the 
Genevan  situation  seemed  to  him,  it  seemed  worse 
to  him  and  to  Farel  that  a  serious  division  in  the 
ecclesiastical  forces  of  Switzerland  should  continue. 
The  vindicatory  council  for  which  both  reformers 
had  hoped  was  evidently  unattainable  without  the 
aid  of  Bern.  Farel  accordingly,  at  considerable  sac- 
rifice of  personal  feeHng,  approached  the  Bernese 
pastor,  Peter  Kuntz.  Kuntz's  views  had  altered. 
Farel,  settled  at  Neuchatel,  and  no  longer  merely 
a  Genevan  exile,  was  a  power  in  the  French-speak- 
ing churches  of  the  Bernese  territories,  and  his 
friendship  was  now  worth  much  to  Bern.  And  so, 
under  Bernese  auspices,  there  came  about,  on  March 
12,  1539,  not  the  desired  council,  but  a  meeting  at 
Morges  between  the  Genevan  pastors,  ministers  from 
French  Switzerland,  and  Farel,  under  the  presidency 
of  two  ministers  of  Bern,  by  which  a  reconcilia- 
tion of  the  French-speaking  Protestant  pastors  was 
effected."^  The  Genevan  ministers  acknowledged  that 
they  should  have  consulted  Farel,  Calvin,  and  Coraud 
before  taking  their  places.      The  exiles  were  declared 


^  Opera,  xb.  304-306;    xxi.  243. 
*  Herminjard,  v.  243-246. 


1542]  Return  to  Geneva  249 

to  have  been  faithful  pastors,  and  their  successors 
promised  to  do  their  best  to  strengthen  discipline, 
care  for  the  poor  and  aid  the  school.  Not  all  that 
the  exiles  wished  had  been  secured;  but  Calvin  from 
his  Strassburg  home  wrote  to  Farel:' — 

We  have  in  part  obtained  that  which  we  have  chiefly 
sought, — that  those  evil  dissensions  between  brethren  which 
were  wholly  devastating  the  Church  should  be  adjusted. 
We  can  never  sufficiently  render  thanks  to  the  Lord  who  by 
His  goodness  so  surpasses  our  hope. 

To  show  this  re-estabhshed  goodwill,  Viret  and 
Fabri  now  preached  in  Geneva;  Farel,  whom  banish- 
ment still  held  away,  declared  his  readiness  to  help  in 
any  manner  in  his  power;  and,  on  June  25th,  Calvin 
wrote  to  the  Genevan  Church  a  calm  yet  most  earnest 
letter,  without  a  trace  of  personal  resentment,  but 
breathing  the  utmost  goodwill  and  pastoral  soUcitude. 
He  deplores  their  divisions,  urges  the  sacredness  of  the 
pastoral  office;  declares  that  the  trying  circumstances  of 
his  own  departure  were  due  to  the  work  of  Satan,  but 
that  the  appointment  of  their  new  pastors  was  ''not 
without  the  will  of  God,"  who  has  preserved  the  Refor- 
mation and  not  left  them  to  the  Papacy;  and  urges  the 
cordial  support  of  their  ministers  as  the  only  course 
pleasing  to  God.^  If  Calvin  in  the  heat  of  sudden 
temper  or  of  personal  resentment  would  often  speak  with 


^  April,  1539,  Herminjard,  v.  p.  290. 
*76«f.,  pp.  336-341. 


250  John  Calvin  [1541- 

regrettable  rashness,  none  have  been  able  to  express 
themselves,  in  the  quietness  of  sober  judgment,  more 
nobly  or  unselfishly. 

Calvin  follov/ed  this  service  to  the  cause  of  religion 
in  Geneva  by  one  of  even  greater  conspicuity  not  merely 
to  the  Genevan  Church,  but  to  the  whole  Protestant 
cause.  The  revolution  of  1538,  which  had  driven  Farel 
and  Calvin  from  the  city,  had  been  in  no  sense  a  Roman- 
ising movement,  the  new  ministers  and  the  government 
were  thoroughly  Protestant;  but  the  very  fact  of  re- 
ligious division  in  Geneva  was  enough  to  arouse  the 
hopes  of  its  discarded  bishop  and  the  friends  of  the  older 
Church.  Something  might  come  to  their  advantage 
out  of  the  troubled  situation.  Whether  meetings  of 
bishops  were  held  at  Lyons  to  discuss  measures  for 
Catholic  restoration  is  doubtful;  ^  but,  at  the  request  of 
such  a  gathering,  if  held,  or  on  his  own  initiative,  the 
learned,  moderate,  and  humanistic  bishop  of  Carpentras, 
Cardinal  Jacopo  Sadoleto  (147 7- 1547),  sent  an  appeal 
to  Geneva  to  return  to  the  ancient  faith,  which  was  de- 
livered, with  a  letter,  to  the  Little  Council  on  March 
26,  1539.^  Courteous,  rhetorical,  but  superficial  in  its 
appreciation  of  the  questions  involved,  it  attacked  the 
Reformation  as  without  justification,  urged  the  charge 
that    the    reformers    were    actuated    by    disappointed 


^  Herminjard  (v.  266)  regards  it  as  historically  unsupported;  Cor- 
nelius (p.  247)  believes  the  report;  Doumergue  (ii.  678)  holds  his 
judgment  in  suspense.  It  was  believed  in  Geneva  in  December,  1538, 
Registres  du  Conseil,  xxxii.  252. 

*  Registres  du  Conseil,  xxxiii.  57;  Opera,  xxi.  245.  The  text  of  Sado- 
leto's  appeal  is  given  in  Opera,  v.  369-384. 


1542]  Return  to  Geneva  251 

personal  ambition,  commended  humble  obedience  to 
the  Church  as  a  prime  Christian  duty,  and  asked: ' — 

Whether  is  it  more  expedient  for  your  salvation,  and 
whether  you  think  you  will  do  what  is  more  pleasing  to 
God,  by  believing  and  following  what  the  Catholic  Church 
throughout  the  whole  world,  now  for  more  than  fifteen 
hundred  years,  .  .  .  approves  with  general  consent;  or  in- 
novations introduced  within  these  twenty-five  years,  by 
crafty,  or,  as  they  think  themselves,  acute  men. 

Written  in  Latin,  and  without  attempt  to  make  it 
popularly  available  by  translation  into  French,  it  had 
no  apparent  effect,  save  possibly  to  encourage  Roman 
sympathisers  by  its  existence.  The  Genevan  govern- 
ment was  Httle  disturbed  by  it.  It  sent  the  appeal 
to  Bern;  and,  in  July,  apparently  after  having  thought 
of  committing  the  task  to  Viret,  the  Bernese  author- 
ities, at  the  suggestion  of  Peter  Kuntz,  asked  Calvin 
to  reply.  The  request  was  itself  evidence  of  the  better 
state  of  feeling  that  had  come  to  exist  betw^een  the 
ministry  and  government  at  Bern  and  the  exiled  pastors 
of  Geneva. 

Calvin  received  the  request  in  August,  and,  urged  by 
his  Strassburg  friends,  he  undertook  the  answer.  If, 
as  he  regarded  it  while  at  work  upon  it,  it  really  proved 
a  task  of  six  days  only,  it  is  certainly  a  marvellous  evi- 
dence of  Calvin's  mental  alertness  and  readiness  with 


I  Opera,  v.  378;  Henry  Beveridge's  translation,  Tracts,  i.  13.  Sado- 
leto's  letter  and  Calvin's  reply  are  admirably  characterised  by  Cornelius, 
pp. 249-252. 


252  John  Calvin  [1541- 

the  pen.^  In  any  case,  it  was  quickly  done.  Printed 
copies  were  in  Geneva  on  September  5th.  But  Cal- 
vin's Answer  to  Sadoleto  had  much  more  than  a  local 
significance.  As  in  his  letter  to  Francis  I.,  he  now 
spoke  for  the  whole  movement  in  which  he  was  a  leader. 
It  was  the  most  brilliant  popular  defence  of  the  Protes- 
tant cause  that  had  yet  appeared  or  that  the  Reformation 
was  to  produce.  With  great  courtesy  for  a  writer  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  yet  with  profound  depth  of  feeling, 
with  thorough  grasp  of  the  doctrinal  questions  involved, 
Calvin  first  defends  his  ministry  and  that  of  Farel  from 
the  charge  of  self-seeking.  He  then  invokes  the  au- 
thority of  the  Word  of  God  against  that  of  a  Church 
which  Christian  antiquity  shows  has  not  been  always 
one  and  the  same.  With  immense  effectiveness  he 
presents,  following  the  example  of  Sadoleto,  two  con- 
fessions, one  of  a  layman  and  the  other  of  a  minister, 
before  the  judgment- seat  of  God,  which  were  doubtless 
drawn  from  Calvin's  personal  experience,  and  as  such 
have  been  largely  quoted  in  these  pages  in  describing 
his  conversion.''  Obedience  to  God,  and  to  God's 
revelation  of  Himself  and  of  His  truth  rather  than  to 
the  teaching  of  men,  Calvin  presents  with  tremendous 
power  as  the  Protestant  justification.  Undoubtedly  the 
Reply  made  friends  for  him  at  Geneva  among  those  who 
had  been  his  opponents;  but  it  voiced  the  feelings  of 
Protestantism  everywhere.^ 

^  Letterto  Farel,  Herminjard,  v.  373.    Text  of  reply,  Opera,  v.  385-416. 

^^;z^,  pp.  73-75. 

3  Its  translation  into  French  was  immediately  begun.  Pignet  to 
Calvin,  October  4,  1539;  Herminjard,  vi.  37.  Luther's  opinion  has 
already  been  noted,  ante,  p.  243. 


1542]  Return   to  Geneva  253 

While  these  friendly  acts  unquestionably  greatly  in- 
creased the  prestige  of  Calvin  at  (jcneva,  they  were  not, 
in  themselves,  sufficient  to  bring  a})out  efforts  to  secure 
his  return  to  the  pastorate  from  which  he  had  been 
expelled.  For  that  result  a  new  revolution  was  re- 
sponsible that  was  to  thrust  from  power  the  party  that 
had  won  the  election  of  1538,  and  put  the  leaders  then 
defeated  once  more  in  control.  The  immediate  causes 
of  that  revolution  grew  out  of  the  involved  political 
relations  of  Geneva  with  Bern.  The  war  of  1536, 
which  had  secured  Geneva's  release  from  danger  of 
control  by  Savoy,  had  been  won  by  Bern,  and  left  Ge- 
neva in  a  difficult  position  in  relation  to  its  aggressive 
protector.  Bern,  in  the  flush  of  triumph  over  Savoy, 
had  asserted  possession  of  the  political  rights  over 
Geneva  once  held  by  its  bishop  and  by  the  Duke  of 
Savoy;  but  the  determined  resistance  of  the  little  city 
had  brought  about  the  treaty  of  August  7,  1536,  by 
which  Bern  abandoned  these  pretensions  and  turned 
over  to  Geneva  not  merely  the  churches,  monasteries, 
possessions  of  the  vicedominus,  and  estates  of  the  bishop 
and  chapter,  but  also  the  property  and  temporal  powers 
of  the  prior  of  Saint- Victor,  reserving  only  an  ill-defined 
right  of  appeal  in  the  administration  of  justice.  It  is 
evident  that  in  the  provision  last  named  there  was  fuel 
for  constant  disputes,  especially  regarding  those  prop- 
erties of  the  chapter  and  of  Saint- Victor  which  lay  at  a 
distance  from  Geneva  and  were  adjacent  to  or  sur- 
rounded by  territories  in  w^hich  Bern  held  undisputed 
sway.  Quarrels  were  constant,  and  the  question  was 
one  involving  interests  which  a  large  portion  of  the 


254 


John  Calvin  [1541- 


inhabitants  of  Geneva  deemed  vital  to  the  independence 
of  the  city. 

The  election  of  February,  1539,  but  strengthened  the 
hold  upon  the  government  of  Geneva  of  the  party  vic- 
torious in  1538,  by  which  the  reformers  had  been  exiled. 
In  March,  that  government  sent  three  of  its  own  mem- 
bers— Jean  LulHn,  Ami  de  Chapeaurouge  and  Jean 
Monathon — to  Bern  to  attempt  a  new^  treaty.  In  three 
days  their  task  was  done.  They  had  signed  the  agree- 
ment, and  Bern  had  approved  the  result.  The  reason 
of  this  prompt  acquiescence  by  Geneva's  powerful 
neighbour  in  a  treaty  which  was  designed  to  settle 
questions  so  vexed  as  those  in  dispute  was  that  the 
three  Genevan  representatives  had  abandoned  a  large 
share  of  the  Genevan  claims.  They  had  transgressed 
their  instructions,^  and  no  adequate  explanation  of  their 
conduct  is  apparent.  Nor  is  the  attitude  of  the  Little 
Council  easier  to  understand.  Though  signed  March 
30th,  the  agreement  was  not  laid  before  that  body  till 
June  27th,  and  then,  though  contrar}^  to  the  instructions 
of  the  Little  Council  itself,  simply  "not  accepted." '  No 
vigorous  denunciation  of  the  treaty  and  prosecution 
of  its  authors  immediately  followed.  Though  Bern 
was  asked  to  explain  certain  sections,  and  negotia- 
tions were  carried  on,  it  was  not  till  November  that 
the  Bernese  government  was  officially  informed  that 
Geneva  rejected   it.      Certainly   great    incompetency. 


'  The  latest  discussion  is  a  careful  note  by  Alfred  Cartier,  Doumergue, 
ii.  766-768. 

^  Registres  du  Conseil,  xxxiii.  i86.  See  Cornelius,  pp.  268,  273; 
Doumergue,  ii.  684. 


154  2]  Return  to  Geneva 


255 


if  nothing  worse,  was  exhibited  in  this  transaction, 
and  an  amazing  bhndness  to  the  probable  effects  on 
the  party  in  power.  From  the  articles  into  which 
the  treaty  was  divided,  its  framers  were  nicknamed 
"Articulants,"  a  title  which  the  populace  transformed 
into  "Artichauds"  and  attached  not  merely  to  the  ne- 
gotiators, but  to  the  whole  party  of  which  they  were 
members. 

These  events  gave  the  "Guillcrmins"  their  opportu- 
nity. Under  the  lead  of  Sept,  Perrin,  and  Pertemps  they 
attacked  the  party  in  power,  and,  on  August  25,  1539, 
the  two  last  named  secured  a  vote  from  the  Two  Hund- 
red that  the  hated  treaty  should  never  be  sealed.  A 
General  Assembly,  on  November  i6th,  ordered  Bern 
informed  that  Geneva  refused  the  treaty.  Bern  in- 
sisted on  its  maintenance.  Party  division  in  Geneva,  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  both  sides  were  now  arrayed  against 
the  treaty,  grew  worse,  though,  in  January  and  Feb- 
ruaiy,  1540,  it  seemed  for  a  little  as  if  a  compromise 
could  be  effected  between  the  "  Guillermins"  and  "  Arti- 
chauds."  By  popular  demand  in  a  General  Assembly, 
the  rivals.  Sept  and  PhiHppe,  shook  hands  in  token  of 
reconcihation  on  January  27th;  and  at  the  election  of 
February  8th  two  syndics  were  chosen  from  either 
party.  Though  the  majority  in  the  Little  Council 
remained  to  the  '' Artichauds,"  Sept  and  Pertemps  were 
given  seats  in  it.  But  Bern's  action  made  any  adjust- 
ment difficult.  On  April  i8th,  a  Bernese  embassy 
declared,  in  the  General  Assembly  at  Geneva,  that  that 
city  had  no  right  to  repudiate  a  treaty  made  by  its  duly 
appointed  negotiators.     Geneva    once  more    refused; 


256  John  Calvin  [1541- 

and,  four  days  later,  a  new  General  Assembly  broke 
forth  in  stormy  wrath  against  the  three  to  whom  the 
treaty  was  due, — or  ''three  traitors,"  as  they  were  now 
styled,  and  demanded  their  punishment.  A  wave  of 
popular  feeling  was  now  in  control  of  the  city;  the 
government  was  nearly  powerless.  The  negotiators 
fled ;  and,  on  May  20th,  their  places  in  the  Little  Council 
were  taken  by  three  "  Guillermins,"  giving  to  that  party 
for  the  first  time  in  more  than  two  years  a  majority  in 
that  body.  Under  the  impulse  of  popular  passion,  on 
June  5th,  in  spite  of  Bern's  efforts  in  their  behalf, — or 
perhaps  the  more  because  of  those  efforts, — the  three 
negotiators  were  condemned  to  death, — fortunately  for 
them  in  their  absence  from  Geneva.  But  worse  fol- 
lowed. A  street  fight  took  place  on  the  evening  of  the 
day  following  between  members  of  the  rival  factions. 
It  would  appear  that  the  "  Artichauds"  were  the  aggres- 
sors; and,  at  all  events,  the  quick-tempered  and  im- 
petuous Jean  Philippe,  leader  of  that  party,  and  captain- 
general  of  the  city,  was  drawn  into  the  riot,  which  re- 
sulted in  two  deaths.  In  its  heat  he  and  Michel  Sept, 
his  opponent,  who  was  looking  on  the  scene  from 
a  window,  exchanged  recriminations.  Popular  fury 
turned  against  Phihppe,  and  the  next  day  his  trial  began, 
if  such  it  can  be  called.  Under  threat  of  torture  he 
confessed  himself  the  cause  of  the  death  of  one  of 
the  rioters, — an  allegation  which  he  had  previously 
denied.  In  spite  of  the  efforts  of  the  representatives  of 
Bern  in  his  behalf,  popular  excitement  overcame  all 
governmental  scruples,  and,  on  June  loth,  he  was  be- 
headed, dying,  whatever  may  have  been  his  faults,  a 


1542]  Return  to  Geneva  257 

victim  of  judicial  murder,  forced  by  the  will  of  the 
multitude.' 

With  the  death  of  Jean  Philippe  the  leaders  of  the 
''Artichauds"  were  broken;  his  associate,  Claude  Ri- 
chardet,  fled  the  city  the  night  following  the  execution. 
Two  of  the  four  syndics  under  whom  Calvin  had  been 
banished  had  been  condemned  to  death  as  traitors  for 
negotiating  the  unhappy  treaty;  the  third  had  been 
beheaded  (Philippe),  and  the  fourth,  as  has  just  been 
mentioned,  was  in  flight.  This  result  had  come  about, 
however,  not  so  much  through  the  skill  of  the  "  Guiller- 
min  "  leaders  as  through  the  excitement  of  the  populace. 
In  spite  of  their  majority  in  the  government,  the  "  Guil- 
lermins"  were  itnable  to  exercise  efficient  control  of  the 
turbulent  city.  But,  during  the  summer  of  1540,  Bern 
and  Geneva  stood  on  the  brink  of  war.  By  August 
and  September,  Geneva  was  making  preparations  for 
defence;  and  the  danger,  together  with  the  efforts  to 
meet  it,  gradually  brought  about  order  and  govern- 
mental control.  Fortunately  the  war  cloud  passed. 
During  this  period  of  anarchy,  however,  two  of 
the  pastors,  Jean  Morand  and  Antoine  Marcourt, 
dropped  their  work  and  left  the  city  without  seeking 
dismission.  The  religious  situation  of  Geneva  was, 
therefore,  one  imperatively  demanding  a  much  stronger 
leadership  than  Henri  de  la  Mare  or  Jacques  Bernard 


'  The  death  of  Philippe  is  naturally  one  of  the  most  debated  points 
in  Genevan  historj-  and  its  motives  and  merits  have  been  judged  with 
much  divergence  by  Galiffe,  Kampschulte,  Roget,  Cornelius,  and 
Doumergue.  Of  the  main  facts  and  of  its  consequences  there  can  be 
no  question.  The  chief  points  of  divergence  are  as  to  his  deserts,  and 
as  to  the  seriousness  of  the  riot. 
17 


258  John  Calvin  [1541- 

could  exercise.  The  government  was  in  the  hands  of 
the  party  that  had  supported  Farel  and  Calvin;  and, 
on  news  of  Marcourt's  demission  of  his  pastoral  office, 
the  Little  Council,  by  vote  on  September  21,  1540,  in- 
structed Ami  Perrin  "to  find  means,  if  possible,  to  make 
Master  Caulvin  come"  ^  back  to  Geneva.  It  would  be 
an  error  to  ascribe  this  action  to  a  popular  demand. 
Even  as  long  after  it  was  taken  as  October  17th,  Jacques 
Bernard  had  no  knowledge  of  an  attempt  to  secure 
Calvin's  return.^^  It  was  rather  the  plan  of  the  ''Guil- 
lermin"  leaders,  who  thus  sought  to  strengthen  the 
fallen  religious  state  of  the  city  and  establish  their 
own  position. 

Calvin's  return  to  Geneva  had  long  been  wished  by 
Farel  and  Farel's  friends.  Indeed,  mention  had  been 
made  of  it  as  possible  in  the  correspondence  of  the  re- 
formers as  early  as  April,  1539,  and  again  in  March, 
1540;  but  Calvin  had  declared  to  Farel  that  he  would 
rather  endure  "a  hundred  other  deaths  than  that 
cross."  3  It  must  have  been  clear  to  those  who  knew 
him  that  Calvin  could  not  easily  be  persuaded  to  leave 
the  quiet,  the  usefulness,  and  the  growing  honours  of 
Strassburg  for  the  inevitable  struggles  of  Geneva.  In 
order  to  ascertain  his  probable  action  before  making 
the  matter  more  public,  and  to  bring  as  much  pressure 
to  bear  on  Calvin  as  possible,  the  desire  of  the  Little 


^  Registres  du  Co7tseil,  xxxiv.  452;    Opera,  xxi.  265. 

^  His  letter  to  Calvin,  Henninjard,  vii.  23. 

3  Herminjard,  v.  290;  vi.  199,  217.  The  letters  of  the  reformers  and 
the  Registres  du  Conseil  continue  the  chief  source.  Recent  discussions 
are  those  of  Cornelius,  pp.  316-353;  and  of  Doumergue,  ii.  694-710. 


1542]  Return  to  Geneva 


259 


Council  was  made  known  to  some  of  Calvin's  friends 
in  the  ministry  of  French-speaking  Switzerland. 
Christopher  Fabri,  of  Thonon,  discussed  the  matter  at 
Geneva  and  wrote  to  Farel  of  what  had  been  done ;  ^ 
and  the  warm-hearted  Farel,  in  spite  of  his  natural 
chagrin  that  no  mention  of  his  own  possible  restoration 
to  Geneva  had  been  made,  became  at  once  the  most 
indefatigable  of  workers  in  the  cause.''  To  him,  more 
than  to  any  other,  Calvin's  return,  like  that  reformer's 
original  settlement  in  Geneva,  was  to  be  due.  Farel 
himself  journeyed  at  once  to  Strassburg,  and  with  him 
went  urgent  letters  from  Antoine  Marcourt,  Mathurin 
Cordier;  and  Andre  Zebedee,  pastor  at  Orbe.  Soon 
Viret's  appeal  followed .^ 

'  To  Calvin  the  call,  pressed  by  Farel,  caused  great 
mental  perturbation;  but  he  gave  answer  that  his  im- 
mediate duty  was  attendance  on  the  Colloquy  at  Worms, 
of  which  some  account  has  already  been  given.  As  for 
his  work  at  Geneva,  he  shuddered  when  he  thought  of 
a  return,  nor  would  ''any  bond  have  held  [him]  there  so 
long,  save  that  [he]  did  not  dare  throw  off  the  yoke  of 
the  calling  which  [he]  knew  had  been  laid  upon  [him] 
by  God."  4  Still,  he  did  not  absolutely  refuse,  for  a 
reason  that  throws  much  light  on  his  own  view  of 
duty.  As  he  said  to  Farel:  ''If  I  were  given  the 
choice,  I  would  do  anything  rather  than  yield  to  you 


^  Herminjard,  vi.  309. 

2  Ibid.,  pp.  311,  388.     Compare  Cornelius,  p.  326. 

3  Ibid.,  pp.  317-324,  329. 

^  Letter  to  Farel  of  October    21,  1540,  Ibid.,  pp.  325,  326;   see  also 
Calvin's  letter  to  the  Little  Council,  Ibid.,  p.  334. 


26o  John  Calvin  [1541- 

in  this  matter ;  but  since  I  remember  that  I  am  not  my 
own,  I  offer  my  heart  as  if  slain  in  sacrifice  to  the  Lord."  ^ 
There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  the  thorough  honesty  of 
Calvin's  expression  of  his  inmost  feeling  to  his  intimate 
correspondent;  nor  to  question  that  obedience  to  the 
will  of  God  was  his  highest  motive  in  this  decision. 
Equally  plain  is  it,  here  and  earlier,  that,  strong-willed 
as  he  was  himself,  he  was  highly  susceptible  to  repre- 
sentations as  to  his  duty  by  those  he  loved  and  trusted. 
The  decision  was,  indeed,  a  hard  one.  Strassburg 
offered  peace;  the  agreeable  companionship  of  Bucer, 
Capito,  and  Hedio,  with  whom,  especially  with  Bucer, 
he  had  much  in  common;  a  pastorate  from  which  he 
could  influence  France;  a  professorship  which  touched 
students  from  many  lands;  acquaintance  with  the 
leaders  of  Gennany;  and  a  growing  fame  and  influ- 
ence. Geneva  meant  the  renewal  of  weary  struggles 
and,  at  best,  doubtful  success;  but  it  meant,  too,  greater 
influence  on  the  Evangelical  cause  in  France  than  Strass- 
burg afforded,  and,  above  all,  an  opportunity  to  put 
in  practice  his  programme  for  the  organisation  of  a 
well  disciplined  Church,  and  therefore  an  ideal  common- 
wealth, which  he  had,  indeed,  realised  in  his  congrega- 
tion at  Strassburg,  but  which  he  could  never  hope  to 
apply  to  that  city  as  a  whole.  He  might  well  doubt 
which  was  the  path  of  duty;  if  he  looked  for  comfort 
and  repute, — save  from  a  pecuniary  standpoint,  and 
there  is  no  evidence  that  this  consideration  weighed 
with  him  in  the  matter, — his  prospects  at  Strassburg 
were  the  brighter. 

^  Letter  of  October  24,  1540,  Herminjard,  vi.  p.  339. 


1542]  Return  to  Geneva  261 

The  Genevan  leaders  hoped,  however,  for  a  favour- 
able decision,  and  now  took  more  public  action.  On 
October  19th  and  20th,  the  Two  Hundred  and  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  formally  invited  Calvin  to  return;  and, 
the  next  day,  the  little  Council  appointed  Ami  Perrin, 
"with  a  herald"  to  seek  him  with  the  message/  The 
formal  notice  of  his  honourable  recall  reached  Calvin 
at  Worms.  It  must  have  been  a  moment  of  high  satis- 
faction. The  disgrace  of  1538,  if  such  it  can  be  called, 
had  been  thoroughly  removed.  But  it  was  a  day  of 
great  perplexity,  also,  for  the  Strassburg  authorities, 
and  the  ministers  of  that  city  made  evident  to  him,  as 
never  before,  how  great  was  their  desire  that  he  should 
continue  the  work  there  begun.  Calvin  could  only  reply 
undecidedly  to  the  Genevan  request.^  As  time  went 
on,  in  spite  of  constant  urgency  from  Farcl  and  all  whom 
Farel  could  influence,  Calvin's  inclination  seemed  to 
turn  increasingly  toward  Strassburg;  till  late  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1 541,  he  received  from  his  fiery  friend  a  ''thun- 
dering" letter  which,  according  to  the  testimony  of 
Claude  Feray, — the  young  member  of  Calvin's  house- 
hold who  was  to  die  a  few  days  later  of  the  plague, — 
turned  Calvin's  wavering  mind  Geneva- ward .^ 


*  Registres  du  Conseil,  xxxiv.  483-487;  Opera,  xxi.  267.  The  letter 
is  in  Herminjard,  vi.  331. 

^  See  the  letter  of  (i)  Calvin  to  Geneva,  (2)  the  ministers  of  Strassburg 
and  Basel  in  attendance  at  Worms  to  Geneva,  and  (3)  Calvin  to  Farel, 
from  Worms  November  12  and  13,  1540,  Herminjard,  vi.  352-367. 

3  Farel' s  letter  to  Calvin  is  not  known  to  exist.  Calvin  replied  from 
Ulm  on  his  way  to  Regensburg,  Herminjard,  vii.  40-42.  Feray's  letter 
of  March  8th  is  given  Ibid.,  p.  46.  He  died  about  the  middle  of  the 
same  month,  see  anie,  p.  241. 


262  John  Calvin  [1541- 

Though  almost  certainly  decided  in  Calvin's  own 
thought  at  this  juncture  that  he  would  return  to  Ge- 
neva, at  least  for  a  time,  he  was  long  detained  at  the 
Colloquy  in  Regensburg.  Farel  knew  no  rest.  He 
stirred  up  the  pastors  of  Zurich  to  urge  on  Calvin  the 
importance  of  Geneva  for  the  Evangelical  cause  in 
France  and  Italy.  Geneva  asked  the  aid  of  Zurich  and 
Basel,  and  pleaded  its  cause  with  the  authorities  of 
Strassburg.  And,  at  last,  Calvin  fully  resolved,  that 
whether  his  stay  should  be  brief  or  permanent,  he  would 
go  to  Geneva,  and  attempt  the  restoration  of  church- 
order  as  he  understood  it.  He  hoped  to  go  with  Bucer's 
companionship;  failing  that,  he  desired  aid  from  Basel 
and  Bern;  but, in  the  end,  he  had  to  enter  on  his 
work  alone.^  On  September  13,  1541,  apparently,  he 
re-entered  the  city  which  was  thenceforth  to  be  his  resi- 
dence, simply  and  unostentatiously.^  With  business-  like 
directness,  and  perfect  clearness  of  vision  he  entered 
on  his  task.  On  the  day  of  his  arrival,  he  presented 
himself  before  the  Little  Council,  explained  his  long 
indecision,  asked  that  the  Council  choose  a  committee 
to  aid  in  preparing  a  written  constitution  for  the  Gene- 
van Church,  and  declared  his  wish  to  serve  the  city.^ 
The  Strassburg  episode  was  past.  Calvin's  Genevan 
work  had  once  more  begun. 

1  Comelius,pp.  350,  351. 

2  In  spite  of  Beza's  statement  {Opera,  sxi.  131)  that  he  was  received 
with  the  greatest  congratulations  of  all  the  people  and  of  the  Council, 
Fabri's  letter  to  Farel  of  September  i8th  (Herminjard,  vii.  260)  gives  no 
impression  of  a  popular  demonstration.  Doumergue  (ii.  710)  shows 
reasons  for  believing  there  was  none.     Beza  gives  the  date. 

3  Registres  du  Conseil,  xxxv.  324;    Opera,  xxi.  282. 


1542]  Return  to  Geneva  263 

It  was  undoubtedly  Calvin's  feeling  that  he  had  been 
restored  to  Geneva  by  the  hand  of  God.  He  treated 
his  banishment  as  a  mere  interruption;  and,  therefore, 
when  he  resumed  his  preaching,  apparently  on  the  Sun- 
day following  his  return,  instead  of  the  sensational  dis- 
course which  his  hearers  eagerly  expected,  he  spoke 
not  a  word  about  the  recent  past;  but,  after  a  brief 
definition  of  his  office  and  of  his  motives  in  undertak- 
ing its  duties,  began  his  exposition  of  the  Scriptures 
at  the  passage  with  which  he  had  closed  when  ban- 
ished.' He  made  no  effort,  at  the  time,  to  have  his 
fellow-ministers  removed,  though  they  were  thoroughly 
unsatisfactory  to  him,  and  he  expressed  his  disHke  of 
them  freely  in  letters  to  confidential  correspondents. 
He  was  conciliatory  toward  former  opponents.  He 
acted  with  wisdom  and  prudence;  and  for  one  of  so 
impulsive  a  temperament,  with  great  self-restraint. 
This  attitude  was  made  all  the  easier  by  the  honour- 
able treatment  that  he  received  from  the  government. 
He  was  provided  with  a  house  and  garden  that  had 
once  belonged  to  one  of  the  canons  of  the  Cathedral ; "" 


^  Calvin's  letter  of  January,  1542,  is  full  of  interesting  details,  Her- 
minjard,  vii.  408-413;   see  also  Ihid.,  pp.  249,  350,  438. 

^  Regisires  du  Conseil,  xxxv.  297,  327,  352,  368;  Opera,  xxi.  281-284. 
The  house  had  been  purchased  of  the  government  by  de  Fresneville, 
Sieur  de  Sansoex,  in  1539,  and  was  bought  back  by  the  Genevan 
authorities  in  1543.  It  stood  on  the  site  of  the  present  No.  11  Rue  de 
Calvin.  Calvin's  house  has  disappeared,  the  site  having  been  built 
upon  anew  early  in  the  i8th  century.  Not  being  ready  at  once,  Calvin 
occupied  for  a  few  months  the  house  adjoining  (on  the  site  of  No.  9). 
From  1543  to  his  death.  No.  11  was  his  home.  The  facts  are  fully 
presented  by  Doumergue,  iii.  491-508.  It  was  very  meagrely  furnished, 
in  part  at  governmental  expense. 


264  John  Calvin  [1541- 

his  wife  and  household  goods  were  brought  from  Strass- 
burg  at  the  expense  of  the  city,  a  salary  of  five  hundred 
florins  was  voted  him,  the  sum  being  considered  large 
partly  because  of  his  necessary  entertainment  of  pass- 
ing visitors,  and  allowances  were  made  him  of  wheat, 
wine  and  clothing.  His  income  was  probably  equiv- 
alent to  the  present  purchasing  power  of  eight  hundred 
to  a  thousand  dollars,  aside  from  the  worth  of  his 
house.^  At  best  it  was  a  frugal  living  for  one  in  his 
position;  though  he  was  henceforth  relieved  from  such 
poverty  as  he  had  borne  in  Strassburg. 

Calvin's  return  to  Geneva  had  for  its  object,  from 
his  point  of  view,  the  establishment  of  an  ecclesiastical 
constitution  which  should  make  of  the  city  a  model 
Christian  community  The  party  now  in  power  in 
Geneva  was  weary  of  civil  disorders,  convinced  of  the 
ill-estate  of  the  Church,  and  of  the  insufficiency  of  its 
ministers.     The  moment  was  therefore   ripe  for  the 


^  The  purchasing  power  of  Calvin's  salary  has  been  most  variously 
estimated,  from  the  computation  of  Jules  Bonnet,  who  valued  the 
500  florins  at  $50,  to  that  of  Galiffe,  $1200;  and  of  Marcel  Sues- 
Ducommun,  $1500,  Doumergue  (iii.  449-477)  discusses  it  amply, 
and  while  admitting  that  the  subject  is  one  on  which  an  exact  decision 
is  impossible,  he  values  Calvin's  500  florins  at  3000  to  3500  francs, 
and  his  total  compensation,  aside  from  his  house,  at  4000  francs.  It 
was  double  that  of  an  ordinary  minister.  If  these  payments  seem 
small,  it  must  be  remembered  that  Geneva  was  a  Uttle,  and  not  very 
wealthy,  city;  and  that  ministerial  compensation  in  all  non-prelatical 
Protestant  lands  was  then  meagre,  partly  because  pre-Reformation 
incomes  had  been  gauged  to  the  needs  of  a  celibate  clergy,  but  even 
more  because  governmental  confiscation  of  Church  properties,  abo- 
Ution  of  fees,  etc.,  had  operated  universally  to  the  financial  disad- 
vantage of  the  Church.  Calvin  was,  of  course,  paid  from  the  city 
treasury. 


154^]   The  Ecclesiastical  Constitution    265 

work.  Yet  very  little  evidence  appears  of  anything 
that  can  be  called  a  popular  religious  awakening, 
such  as  is  witnessed  in  the  story  of  English  Puritan- 
ism. 

In  accordance  with  Calvin's  request,  on  the  day  of 
his  arrival,  the  Little  Council  appointed  a  committee 
of  six  to  co-operate  with  Calvin  and  the  other  ministers 
of  the  city,  among  whom  was  Viret,  then  on  leave  of 
absence  from  Lausanne.  Four  of  this  committee, 
Claude  Pertemps,  Ami  Perrin,  Claude  Roset,  and  Jean 
Lambert,  were  from  the  Little  Council  itself;  two.  Ami 
Porral  and  Jean  Balard,  were  from  the  Two  Hundred. 
All,  save  Balard,  had  been  determined  "  Guillermins." 
Of  Balard's  reluctant  acceptance  of  Protestantism,  in 
1536,  mention  has  already  been  made,'  and  his  Evan- 
gelicalism was  afterwards  in  doubt.  Three  days  later 
the  Little  Council  voted  that  the  OrdonnanceSy  when 
drafted,  should  be  submitted  successively  to  itself,  the 
Two  Hundred,  and  the  General  Assembly.  The  work 
moved  rapidly.  On  September  26th,  it  was  laid  before 
the  Little  Council,  which  proceeded,  three  days  later, 
to  examine  it  article  by  article, — a  process  which  was 
completed  at  the  cost  of  much  discussion  and  of  stren- 
uous labour  on  Calvin's  part,  on  November  3d.  Six 
days  later,  the  draft  as  modified  by  the  Little  Council 
was  laid  before  the  Two  Hundred,  and  slightly  altered 


^  Ante,  p.  178.  The  text  of  the  first  draft  of  the  Ordonnances,  and 
its  various  modifications  till  adopted,  is  given  in  Opera,  xa.  16-30. 
Much  of  the  pertinent  government  action  is  recorded  in  the  Registres 
du  Conseil,  xxxv.  324-410,  is  printed  in  Opera,  xxi.  282-287.  The 
fullest  discussion  is  that  of  Cornelius,  pp.  353-387- 


266  John  Calvin  [1541- 

by  its  action.  On  November  20th,  the  General  Assem- 
bly approved  the  ecclesiastical  constitution  without 
dissent.  The  tenacity  with  which  the  Genevan  gov- 
ernment held  to  its  right  to  initiate  and  estabhsh  an 
ecclesiastical  constitution,  even  in  the  days  of  first  en- 
thusiasm over  Calvin's  return,  is  shown,  however,  in 
the  refusal  of  the  Little  Council  to  let  the  ministers 
see  the  changes  which  it  had  made  in  their  draft  before 
transmitting  it  to  the  Two  Hundred.'  It  would  have 
Calvin  as  an  adviser,  but  not  intentionally  as  a  ruler. 

The  Ordonnances  of  1541  show  great  advance  over 
the  Articles  of  1537,  in  elaboration  and  preciseness, 
yet  there  is  no  essential  alteration  of  the  thoughts  that 
underlay  the  less  mature  and  definite  document  of 
nearly  five  years  earlier.  That  of  1541  was  much  more 
minute  and  circumstantial;  but  its  prime  purposes,  like 
those  of  the  earlier  Articles,  are  to  give  a  measure  of 
self-government  elsewhere  unknown  in  Protestant  lands 
to  the  Church,  while  maintaining  helpful  relations  with 
the  State;  and  to  put  into  operation  an  effective  dis- 
cipline whereby  the  Church  might  fulfil  that  which  Cal- 
vin regarded  as  its  most  urgent  duty,  the  initiation  of 
its  members  into,  and  their  maintenance  in,  right  doc- 
trine and  right  hving.  They  gave  to  the  Church  no 
control  over  the  State  in  political  concerns  or  in  the 
infliction  of  civil  punishments. 

As  finally  passed,  the  Ordonnances  were  not,  indeed, 
in  all  respects   what  Calvin  desired. "*      Some  of  the 


^  Registres  du  Conseil,  xxxv.  384;   Opera,  xxi.  2S6. 
*  "Not  indeed  quite  perfect,  but  passable  considering  the  difficulty 
of  the  times,"  Calvin  said  of  them,  Herrninjard,  vii.  409. 


1542]   The  Ecclesiastical  Constitution     267 

regulations  that  he  wished  were  rejected  on  grounds 
of  rehgious  conviction  or  even  of  prejudice.  More 
were  modified  lest  the  control  exercised  by  the  gov- 
ernment be  too  much  diminished.  The  principal 
illustrations  will  be  mentioned  in  giving  an  outline  of 
the  document. 

The  Ordonnances  begin  with  the  declaration  that 
Christ  has  instituted  in  His  Church  the  four  offices  of 
pastor,  teacher,  elder,  and  deacon.  The  pastors  of 
the  Genevan  city  Church  are  designated  as  five,  with 
three  assistants, — a  number  afterwards  increased.  For 
the  dependent  villages  pastors  are  also  to  be  appointed. 
Their  office  is  to  preach,  admonish,  and  reprove  in 
public  and  in  private,  to  administer  the  Sacraments, 
and,  in  conjunction  with  the  elders,  to  make  "fraternal 
corrections."  They  enter  office  by  election  by  their 
fellow-ministers;  and  approval  by  the  government. 
This  provision  was  modified  from  Calvin's  draft  by  the 
reservation  that  the  Little  Council  should  be  made  cog- 
nisant of  the  election  at  the  time  of  its  occurrence,  and 
should  accept  the  one  chosen  to  office  only  ''if  it  seems 
to  be  expedient,"  thus  strengthening  governmental  con- 
trol. To  the  people  was  assigned  only  a  right  of  "  com- 
mon consent,"  which  amounted  to  little  in  Genevan 
practice.'  Election  was  to  be  preceded  by  the  exami- 
nation of  the  candidate  by  the  ministers  as  to  doctrine 
and  Hfe.  Calvin  would  have  preferred  induction  into 
office  by  laying  on  of  hands,  but  this  ancient  ceremony 
was   omitted   as   tending   to   foster   superstition.      As 


I  In  the  revision  of  1561,  this  was  defined  as  a  right  to  enter  pro- 
test between  election  and  installation.     Opera,  xa.  94. 


268  John   Calvin  [1541- 

provided  in  the  Ordonnances,  entrance  upon  the  pas- 
toral office  was,  therefore,  by  ministerial  initiative  and 
magisterial  approval;  and  its  twofold  relation  of  fideHt}' 
to  God  in  all  spiritual  matters  and  obedience  to  the 
government  in  all  temporal  concerns  is  indicated  in 
the  oath  required  of  each  minister.' 

As  Calvin  had  vainly  sought  during  his  earlier  Ge- 
nevan ministry,  the  city  was  now  divided  into  three 
parishes, — those  of  Saint-Pierre,  Saint- Gen^ais,  and  La 
Madeleine, — the  first-named  being  the  ancient  cathedral 
and  Calvin's  regular  place  of  preaching.  Sermons,  to 
modem  thinking  in  excessive  abundance,  were  pre- 
scribed; for  Calvin,  like  the  leaders  of  the  Reformation 
generally,  had  a  hunger  for  the  exposition  of  the  ''Word 
of  God."  Sundays  saw  discourses  at  daybreak  in  two 
churches,  at  nine  in  all  three;  at  noon,  there  was  in- 
struction in  the  Catechism,  on  which  Calvin  laid  great 
weight,  in  all  the  churches;  and,  at  three,  sermons  in 
each  church  once  more.  On  Monday,  Wednesday, 
and  Friday  there  was  further  preaching;  and,  before 
Calvin's  death,  a  daily  sermon  had  been  instituted  in 
each  church  of  the  city.  Calvin  wished  a  monthly  cele- 
bration of  the  Supper;  but,  as  in  1537,  he  was  now 
unable  to  carry  pubhc  opinion  with  him,  and  the  com- 
munion continued  to  be  observed  four  times  a  year. 
No  child  was  to  partake  till  he  was  familiar  with  and 
had  made  profession  of  the  faith  set  forth  in  the  Cate- 
chism. Baptisms  and  marriages  had  place  only  in 
the  public  congregation.  Calvin  would  have  admitted 
the  Bernese  custom  of  the  font, — a  fresh  evidence  that 

^  Oath  of  1542,  Opera,  xa.  p.  31. 


1542]    The  Ecclesiastical  Constitution     269 

his  opposition,  in  1538,  was  not  so  much  to  the  Bernese 
ceremonies,  as  to  their  imposition  by  governmental 
authority, — but  here  "Guillermin"  prejudice  would 
have  none  of  it.  Visitation  of  the  sick  was  an  impor- 
tant ministerial  duty,  and  no  inhabitant  was  to  be  bed- 
ridden for  more  than  three  days  without  information 
being  given  to  one  of  the  pastors. 

A  most  important  provision  of  the  Ordonnances  was 
that  requiring  all  the  ministers  of  the  city  and  as  many 
as  possible  of  those  in  its  dependent  villages  to  meet 
weekly  for  discussion  of  the  Scriptures.  These  assem- 
blies were  the  natural  successors  to  the  informal  Col- 
loquia  inaugurated  in  1536;  they  took  place  on  Fridays 
and  were  soon  popularly  known  as  the  Congregation. 
The  exegetical  exercises  were  open  to  the  public.  But, 
beside  these  learned  dehberations,  the  ministers  col- 
lectively, or  Venerable  Compagnie,  as  they  were  soon 
called,  were  charged  with  the  examination  and  election 
of  ministerial  candidates,  and  with  mutual  supervision. 
Every  three  months  they  were  required  by  the  Ordon- 
nances to  meet  for  criticism  one  of  another.  A  list  of 
offences  discreditable  to  or  intolerable  in  a  holder  of 
the  ministerial  office  was  enumerated,  and  the  Ordon- 
nances provided  that  if  the  ministers  themselves  proved 
unable  to  end  a  contention  in  their  ranks,  recourse 
should  be  had  to  the  aid  of  the  elders,  and  then  to  the 
magistrates.  This  left  the  city  government  the  court 
of  final  resort  in  questions  of  doctrine  as  well  as  of  con- 
duct. The  object  of  Calvin's  provisions  regarding  the 
ministry  was  evidently  to  secure  a  body  of  pastors  of 
learning,  character,  and  mutual  helpfulness.     A  purely 


270 


John  Calvin  [1541- 


ministerial  body,  the  Venerable  Compagnie  soon  had 
an  influence  in  Genevan  affairs  much  greater  than  that 
indicated  by  its  constitutional  rights,  though  impossible 
of  exact  definition,  for  it  had  the  force  that  comes  from 
frequent  discussion  and  consequent  united  opinion. 

Calvin  viewed  the  office  of  teacher  as  of  divine  ap- 
pointment,^ having  as  its  highest  duty  that  of  educating 
''the  faithful  in  sound  doctrine"  from  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments.  But  he  felt  no  less  strongly  that  before 
the  learner  ''can  profit  by  such  lessons  he  must  first  be 
instructed  in  the  languages  and  worldly  sciences."^  Cal- 
vin therefore  sought  to  develop  the  Genevan  school 
system  under  this  ecclesiastical  conception  of  the 
teachership.  A  "learned  and  expert  man"  was  to  be 
appointed  as  head  of  the  school,  and  teacher-in-chief, 
with  "readers"  to  give  secondary  instruction,  and 
"bachelors"  to  teach  the  "little  children"  under  his 
control.  The  teacher  was  reckoned  in  the  ministry, 
put  under  its  disciplinary  regulations ;  and,  in  Calvin's 
intention,  was  to  be  installed  on  ministerial  approval, — 
an  exercise  of  ministerial  authority  which  the  jealous 
Little  Council  modified  by  the  provision  that  he  first 
be  "presented"  to  the  government  and  examined  in 
the  presence  of  two  of  its  members.  In  Calvin's  judg- 
ment, the  school  was  an  integral  factor  in  the  rehgious 
training  of  the  community. 

No  section  of  the  Ordonnances  was  more  important 
than  that  having  to  do  with  the  third  order  of  church- 
officers, — that  of  elders.     Here  Calvin   made  a  great 


^  Ephesians,  iv.  ii. 

^Ordonnances,  Opera,  xa.  21,  "sciences  humaines. 


1542]    The  Ecclesiastical  Constitution     271 

advance  upon  the  undeveloped  recommendation  of  the 
Articles  of  1537.  The  office  of  the  eldership  is  defined 
as  involving  the  duty  "to  watch  over  the  hfe  of  each 
individual,  to  admonish  affectionately  those  who  are 
seen  to  err  and  to  lead  a  disorderly  life,  and,  where 
there  shall  be  need,  to  make  report  to  the  body  which 
shall  be  appointed  to  make  fraternal  corrections."  It 
was,  therefore,  the  chief  disciplining  office, — and  was 
lay,  not  ministerial.  The  Ordonnances  provided  that 
the  Little  Council  should  choose  twelve  elders,  subject 
to  consultation  with  the  ministers,  and  final  approval 
by  the  Two  Hundred.  Of  these  officers,  two  were  to 
be  taken  from  the  Little  Council  itself,  four  from  the 
Council  of  Sixty,  and  six  from  that  of  Two  Hundred. 
There  was  no  popular  share  in  their  appointment ;  and 
governmental  jealousy  of  possible  growth  of  ecclesias- 
tical power  is  here  illustrated  by  the  addition  to  the 
simple  designation  "elders,"  given  them  by  Calvin,  of 
their  further  definition  as  "commissioned  or  deputed 
by  the  seigneurie  to  the  consistory." 

In  the  Coiisistoire,  just  mentioned,  composed  of  the 
twelve  elders,  and  members  of  the  regular  ministry  of 
Geneva,  four  to  twelve  in  number,  is  to  be  seen  the 
heart  of  Calvin's  disciplinary  system.  As  provided  in 
the  Ordonnances,  it  met  every  Thursday,  under  the 
presidency  of  one  of  the  syndics.  Calvin  was  not  its 
president, — though  he  presided  a  few  times,  and  may 
possibly  have  been  regarded  as  an  informal,  non- elected 
vice-president.'     Of  the  preponderance  of  his  influence 


'  E.g.  he  presided  three  times  in  1547,  though  Hudriot  du  Molard 
was  president  for  the  year.     Editorial  note  to  Opera,  xxi.  396. 


272  John  Calvin  [1541- 

in  this  body,  the  first  session  of  which  was  held,  appar- 
ently, on  December  15,  1541,  there  can  be  no  question. 
As  defined  in  the  Ordonnances,  the  Consistory  could 
summon  for  examination,  censure,  and  ultimate  ex- 
communication any  who  opposed  "received  doctrine," 
neglected  Church  attendance,  rebelled  against  ecclesi- 
astical good  order,  or  were  of  evil  life ;  but  all  was  so  to 
be  done  "that  the  corrections  should  be  naught  but 
medicines  to  bring  back  sinners  to  our  Lord."  This 
ecclesiastical  power  of  admonition  and  excommunica- 
tion had  its  background  of  civil  authority,  however. 
Perverse  and  contumacious  offenders  were  to  be  reported, 
as  less  definitely  recommended  in  the  Articles  of  1537, 
to  the  Little  Council,  which  should  deal  with  them  as 
it  deemed  best.  It  was  in  regard  to  this  question  of 
the  relation  of  the  power  of  the  Consistory  to  that  of 
the  civil  government  that  Calvin  had  his  severest 
struggle  in  connection  with  the  adoption  of  the  Ordon- 
nances  and  won  his  most  decided  \dctory.  He  had  no 
wish  to  take  from  the  Little  Council  any  of  its  civil 
police  power,  or  its  rights  as  the  final  punisher  of 
contumacious  ecclesiastical  offenders;  but  he  desired 
to  give  the  Consistory  independent  authority  in  its 
own  ecclesiastical  field.  In  the  debate  on  the  Ordon- 
ftances,  the  Little  Council  secured  the  insertion  of  the 
declaration : — 

We  have  ordered  that  the  said  ministers  shall  have 
no  jurisdiction  in  this  province,  but  simply  should  hear 
the  parties  and  make  the  aforesaid  remonstrances.  And 
on  their  report  we  [magistrates]  can  deliberate  and  render 
judgment  according  to  the  merits  of  the  case. 


1542]    The  Ecclesiastical  Constitution    273 

That  would  have  been  greatly  to  lame  Calvin's  \ 
cherished  ecclesiastical  independence;  and,  before  the 
adoption  of  the  Ordonnances,h.e  procured  a  final  modifi- 
cation, which  may  be  regarded  as  expressing  in  classic 
form  not  merely  Calvin's  conception,  but  the  whole  six- 
teenth and  seventeenth  century  Puritan  thought,  of 
the  relations  of  Church  discipline  to  the  co-operant  au- 
thority of  a  friendly  government : — 

That  all  this  [i.e.  discipline]  shall  be  done  in  such  fashion 
that  the  ministers  shall  have  no  civil  jurisdiction  and  shall 
use  none  but  the  spiritual  sword  of  the  Word  of  God  as 
Saint  Paul  directs  them ;  and  that  the  authority  of  the  govern- 
ment and  of  ordinary  justice  shall  in  no  way  be  diminished 
by  the  Consistory,  but  that  civil  authority  shall  remain 
unimpaired.  And,  in  particular,  where  it  shall  be  necessary 
to  make  some  punishment  or  constrain  the  parties,  the  min- 
isters with  the  Consistory,  having  heard  the  parties  and 
made  remonstrances  and  admonitions  as  shall  be  fitting, 
shall  report  all  to  the  Council,  which  shall  deliberate  on 
their  report  and  order  and  render  judgment  according  to 
the  merits  of  the  case. 

Calvin's  establishment  provided,  therefore,  for  an 
independent  ecclesiastical  exercise  of  discipline  up  to 
the  point  of  excommunication;  with  the  further  pun- 
ishment of  refractory  or  gross  offenders  by  the  friendly 
magistrates  as  beyond  the  scope  of  churchly  remedy. 
As  the  members  of  the  Church  included  all  baptised 
inhabitants  of  a  given  territory,  discipline  was  for  all. 
The  Christian  life,  in  Calvin's  conception  far  more  than 
in  Luther's,  is  one  of  dependence  on  the  training  and 


18 


274  John  Calvin  [1541- 

repressing  power  of  the  Church;  and,  in  so  viewing  it, 
Calvin  carried  over  to  the  Reformed  congregations,  in 
highly  modified  form,  a  principle  characteristic  of  the 
Roman  Church.  Yet  the  basis  of  that  discipline  and 
the  rule  of  its  application,  was  not  to  be  the  wisdom 
of  the  Church,  but  the  ''Word  of  God."  God  has  re- 
vealed the  proper  ordering  of  all  right  human  life.  It 
is  the  duty  of  the  Church  and  of  the  State  alike,  each 
in  its  separate  but  mutually  helpful  sphere,  to  make 
men  conform  to  His  law.  The  transgression  of  one 
part  of  that  divine  rule,  by  error  in  faith,  for  example, 
is  no  less  and  no  more  heinous  than  the  breach  of  an- 
other part,  by  sin  in  conduct.  Each  is  to  be  corrected, 
if  possible,  by  the  Church,  and  where  the  Church  has 
done  its  utmost  without  avail,  is  to  be  remedied  or  pun- 
ished by  the  State. 

The  fourth,  and  final,  class  of  church-officers  named 
by  the  Ordonnances  was  that  of  deacons.  These  in- 
cluded not  merely  those  specially  charged  with  poor- 
relief,  but  the  four  trustees  of  the  city  hospital,  and 
they  were  to  be  chosen  in  the  same  way  as  the  elders. 
The  hospital  provided  care  not  merely  for  the  sick,  for 
whose  relief  a  physician  and  a  surgeon  were  ordered; 
but  a  refuge  for  the  superannuated,  for  indigent  widows, 
and  orphans.     Begging  was  to  be  strenuously  repressed. 

Side  by  side  with  the  preparation  and  discussion  of 
the  Ordonnances^  and  his  ministerial  activities,  Calvin 
found  himseK  impelled  to  other  labours  for  the  Genevan 
Church,  the  sum  total  of  which  rendered  the  closing 
months  of  1541  so  busy  that  one  may  readily  credit  his 
statement  that  he  had  worked    unsparingly  and  had 


1542]   The  Ecclesiastical  Constitution     275 

not  since  his  return  enjoyed  two  hours  without  inter- 
ruption.' He  prepared  a  revised  liturgy,  based  on  that 
of  which  he  had  made  use  at  Strassljurg,  but  conformed 
in  many  important  respects,  as  has  already  been  pointed 
out,  to  the  existing  Genevan  usages.^  He  drafted  a; 
Catechism  to  take  the  place  of  that  of  1537,  and  to 
serve  as  the  basis  of  the  Sunday  noon  instruction  of 
children  on  which  he  laid  great  stress.  Calvin  had 
learned  much  as  to  the  teaching  of  young  people  during 
his  Strassburg  sojourn,  and,  instead  of  the  pedagogically 
ill-adapted  form  of  his  earlier  Genevan  ministry,  the 
new  Catechism  presented  a  series  of  brief  and  simple 
questions  and  answers.  From  a  modern  standpoint, 
it  is  far  too  long  and  minute  and  demands  for  its 
thorough  comprehension  a  theologic  insight  beyond 
childish  years;  but  it  shows  great  improvement  in 
teachable  qualities,  and  its  length  and  elaboration 
is  largely  to  be  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  it  was 
designed  not  merely  for  learning,  but  for  pulpit  ex- 
plication.3 

Two  other  services  rendered  by  Calvin  to  Geneva 
in  the  months  immediately  following  his  return  are 
worthy  of  mention  not  merely  as  significant  in  them- 
selves, but  as  showing  his  relations  to  the  civil  admin- 
istration. The  first  had  to  do  with  a  recodification  of 
the  Genevan  laws  and  constitution.  Fifteen  days  after 
Calvin's  return,   but,   as  far    as    the    evidence   goes. 


'  Letter  of  January,  1542,  Herminjard,  vii.  410. 
^  Ante,  p.  223.     Text,  Opera,  vi.  161-210. 

3  Text,  Opera,  vi.  1-134.     On  its  date  see  Calvin's  letter  just  cited, 
Herminjard,  vi.  410. 


276  John  Calvin  [1541- 

without  impulse  from  him,  the  Little  Council  appointed 
a  commission  of  laymen  for  this  task.^  In  May,  1542, 
the  work  thus  begun  was  intrusted  to  the  syndic, 
Claude  Roset,  to  Dr.  Jean  Fabri,  a  lawyer  of  Evian, 
and  to  Calvin.  In  September  following,  Fabri  being 
apparently  unavailable,  Calvin  and  Roset  were  directed 
to  take  up  the  work,  and,  to  afford  leisure,  Calvin  was 
released  by  the  government  from  some  of  his  duties  as 
a  preacher.  Like  all  that  Calvin  undertook,  the  work 
was  promptly  done;  and  on  January  28,  1543,  the 
results  were  essentially  approved  by  the  General  Assem- 
bly. An  examination  of  the  work  shows  that  the 
intention  of  giving  to  Geneva  a  new  pohtical  constitu- 
tion was  entirely  foreign  to  Calvin's  mind.  Practically 
nothing  of  importance  was  changed.  Calvin's  aris- 
tocratic and  anti-demagogic  feehng  doubtless  appears 
in  the  recommendation  in  which  he  and  Roset  joined, 
that  only  two  of  the  four  syndics  should  be  elected  in 
any  one  year,  the  other  two  holding  over.  The  inten- 
tion was  evidently  to  prevent  such  an  overturn  of  the 
government  as  had  taken  place  in  1538;  but  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  jealous  of  its  privileges,  rejected  it. 
Doubtless  the  Genevan  government  was  glad  to  avail 
itself  then  and  often  of  the  legal  training  of  its  chief 
minister;    but    the   observation  is  essentially    correct. 


I  The  passages  from  the  Registres  du  Conseil  are  given  by  Cor- 
nehus,  pp.  394,  395.  The  resultant  revision  by  H.  Fazy,  Constitu- 
tions de  la  Repuhliqice  de  Geneve,  pp.  289  et  seq.;  further  see  Roget, 
Hist,  du  Peuple  de  Geneve,  ii.  62-70;  F.  Tissot,  Les  relations  entre 
Veglise  et  I'etat  a  Geneve  au  temps  du  Calvin,  Lausanne,  1875,  pp. 
73-75- 


1542]    The  Ecclesiastical  Constitution     277 

"that  it  was  in  the  capacity  of  a  draughtsman  and  not 
of  a  legislator"  ^  that  Calvin  did  this  work. 

The  second  service  related  to  the  long  and  compli- 
cated disputes  with  Bern  which  had  nearly  resulted  in 
war  during  the  summer  of  1540.  As  a  means  of  es- 
caping that  calamity,  the  points  of  difference  had  been 
laid  before  arbitrators  from  Basel,  and  the  report  of 
those  investigators,  on  reaching  Geneva,  was  referred 
on  January  19,  1542,  by  the  Little  Council  to  a  com- 
mittee of  which  Calvin  was  appointed  by  it  a  member.^ 
Thanks  to  his  conciliatory  spirit,  the  Little  Council, 
the  Sixty,  and  the  Two  Hundred  were  brought,  after 
long  negotiation,  to  an  agreement;  only  to  have  the 
whole  prospect  of  a  settlement  frustrated  for  the  time 
being  by  the  opposition  and  threats  of  the  popular 
leader,  Francois  Paguet.  Negotiations  were  carried 
on  afresh  for  a  year,  till,  in  September,  1543,  chiefly 
through  Calvin's  efforts  in  favour  of  moderation,^  all 
the  Genevan  councils  were  won,  in  spite  of  the  hostil- 
ity of  Paguet,  who  escaped  punishment  for  his  violent 
opposition  only  by  flight.  Even  now  the  task  was  not 
done.  It  needed  all  Calvin's  influence  at  Basel,  as 
well  as  in  Geneva,  to  bring  the  matter  to  a  successful 
issue;  but,  at  last,  on  February  3,  1544,  the  treaty  was 
achieved,   and  good  relations  re-established  between 


*  Roget,  Histoire  du  peuple  de  Geneve,  ii.  68. 

*  See  E.  Dunant,  Les  relations  politiqiies  de  Gejieve  avec  Berne  et 
les  Suisses,  Geneva,  1894,  pp.  15-184,  for  Calvin's  relations  to  the 
foreign  politics  of  the  city,  also  Roget,  ii.  85-109;  Cornelius,  pp. 
398-414. 

3  See  Calvin's  letter  to  Viret  of  September  16  to  20,  1543,  Hermin- 
jard,  ix.  34. 


278  John  Calvin  [1541- 

Geneva  and  her  powerful  neighbour.  By  the  leaders 
of  Geneva  and  of  Bern  aHke,  this  agreement,  only  a 
few  of  the  steps  preliminary  to  which  have  been  indi- 
cated, was  looked  upon  as  due  in  high  degree  to  the 
patience,  skill,  and  moderation  of  Calvin. 

Enough  has  been  said,  however,  to  make  evident 
Calvin's  position  in  Geneva  in  the  period  immediately 
following  his  return.  He  was  its  most  influential  resi- 
dent. He  was  everywhere  recognised  as  its  chief 
religious  leader.  He  was  regarded  as  the  foremost  in- 
terpreter of  the  "Word  of  God"  in  a  community  which 
professedly  made  the  Scriptures  its  guide.  As  such, 
and  by  reason  of  his  learning,  legal  training,  and  the 
high  esteem  in  which  he  was  held  by  the  other  leaders 
of  Protestantism,  his  opinions  commanded  great  respect, 
while  his  singleness  of  purpose,  iron  will,  and  definite- 
ness  of  aim  made  opposition  difficult.  But  he  was  in 
no  official  position  of  rulership,  he  held  no  civil  office, 
he  usurped  none  of  the  powers  of  government,  however 
strongly  he  influenced  their  exercise.  In  the  adoption 
of  the  Ordonnances  he  could  by  no  means  have  all  to 
his  liking.  In  ci\il  concerns  he  took  part  as  an  ad- 
viser, and  not  as  a  magistrate.  What  was  true  of  these 
opening  years  continued  to  be  characteristic  of  his  whole 
Genevan  work.  But  while  Calvin  had  thus  no  civil 
office,  and  did  not  interfere  with  the  ordinary  machin- 
ery of  government,  it  would  be  absurd  to  deny  that  he 
was  really  a  ruler.  His  power  was  that  of  the  spirit. 
It  was  the  force  of  intellect,  of  persuasion,  and  of  will; 
but  it  was  none  the  less  compelHng. 

It   has   often   been   affirmed    and   denied   that   the 


d /Juiri^  Can r.  fficbi)  to  . 


AUT03RAPH  CF  CALVIN. 


1542]    The  Ecclesiastical  Constitution    279 

system  established  by  the  Ordonnances  deserves  the 
name  of  a  theocracy.  If  by  this  term  is  meant  that 
Calvin  intended  to  submit  all  Genevan  life  to  clerical 
rule,  and  make  the  minister  dominant  over  the  State, 
that  designation  is  incorrect.'  Calvin  would  abridge 
none  of  the  civil  powers  of  government,  and  he  left  to  it, 
partly  because  he  must,  large  influence  in  churchly  af- 
fairs. But  if  by  theocracy  is  meant  that  all  government, 
whether  in  Church  or  State,  should  be  but  the  expres- 
sion, as  nearly  as  human  imperfection  will  admit,  of 
the  will  of  the  divine  Law-giver,  then  Calvin's  ideal 
for  Geneva  was  a  theocracy.  His  system  implied  that 
there  is  a  definitely  ascertainable  rule  of  faith  and  prac- 
tice in  the  Scriptures.^  His  sole  authority  was  as  in- 
terpreter of  that  rule.  The  dangers  of  his  position  were 
that  not  all  would  accept  his  cardinal  principle  of  Script- 
ural authority,  or,  accepting  it,  would  agree  with  his 
interpretation;  and  that,  while  Church  and  State  had 
theoretically  their  separate  spheres,  in  the  exigencies  of 
contest  appeal  would  be  m.ade  to  the  stronger, — and 
that  was  usually  the  State, — to  enforce  his  interpreta- 
tion by  its  characteristic  weapons.  These  perils  were 
to  have  their  abundant  illustration  in   the  story  of 


'  Roget,  Histoire  du  peuple  de  Geneve,  ii.  i8;  compare  Choisy, 
La  tJieocratie  a  Geneve,  p.  51. 

*  Choisy  well  says,  p.  55:  "The  calvinistic  theocracy  established 
the  rule  of  the  Bible,  the  statute  book  of  divine  law.  ReUgion  is 
thus  conceived  ecclesiastically,  not  as  a  principle  of  life,  but  as  a 
government,  and  man  becomes  the  subject  of  an  absolute  sovereign 
whose  will  is  expressed  by  ordinances.  That  these  be  observed  there 
is  need  of  a  body  to  keep  watch,  as  a  police  force,  regarding  the 
divine  law." 


28o  Jo^'^  Calvin  [1541-154^1 

Geneva  under  Calvin's  rule;  but  none  ^an  deny  the 
^mpUcity  and  grandeur  of  his  conceptjon,  though  Us 
Lth  as  an  interpretation  of  the  Gospel  is  more  than 
doubtful,  and  its  extensive  apphcation  to  complex,  m- 
dividuaUstic  modem  life  is  utterly  impossible. 


CHAPTER  XI 

STRUGGLES   AND   CONFLICTS 

UNDOUBTEDLY  a  considerable  part  of  the  rel- 
ative ease  with  which  Calvin  established  his 
ecclesiastical  constitution  in  Geneva,  in  spite  of  diffi- 
culties which  have  been  mentioned,  was  due  to  the 
loss  of  several  conspicuous  leaders  of  the  city-life  just 
before  or  soon  after  his  return.  Not  to  speak  of  the 
death  of  Jean  Philippe  and  the  collapse  of  the  "Arti- 
chauds,"  which  alone  made  that  return  possible,  the 
chief  "  Guillermin"  leader,  Michel  Sept,  died  in  the  au- 
tumn of  1540,  while  Calvin  was  still  at  Strassburg, 
the  religious-minded  Ami  Porral  followed  him  two  years 
later,  and,  in  1544,  the  end  came  to  the  vigorous  Claude 
Pertemps.  Ami  Perrin,  upon  whom  the  ''Guillermin" 
leadership  may  be  said  to  have  devolved,  was  by  no 
means  their  equal.  The  time  of  Calvin's  opening  work 
was  one  of  relative  weakness  among  the  older  leaders 
of  both  parties  in  Genevan  affairs. 

Under  these  circumstances,  the  introduction  of  the 
new  ecclesiastical  discipline  was  easier  than  it  might 
othervdse  have  been.  The  Consistory  began  its  work 
promptly.  No  age  or  distinction  exempted  one  from 
its  censures.  Men  and  women  were  examined  as  to 
their  religious  knowledge,  their  criticism^s  of  ministers, 
their  absences  from  sermons,  their  use  of  charms,  their 

[281] 


82  John  Calvin  [1542- 


202 


family  quarrels,  as  well  as  to  more  serious  offences.^ 
Other  examples,  from  the  later  activity  of  the  Consis- 
tory in  Calvin's  time,  show  disciplinary  procedure 
against  a  widow  who  prayed  a  '^requiescal  in  pace^^ 
on  her  husband's  grave;  for  having  fortunes  told  by 
gypsies;  ^  against  a  goldsmith  for  making  a  chalice; 
for  saying  that  the  incoming  of  French  refugees  had 
raised  the  cost  of  living  and  that  a  minister  had  declared 
that  all  those  who  had  died  earlier  {i.e.  before  the 
Reformation)  were  damned;  for  dancing;  ^  for  pos- 
sessing a  copy  of  the  Golden  Legend;  against  a 
woman  of  seventy  who  was  about  to  marry  a  man  of 
twenty-five;  against  a  barber  for  tonsuring  a  priest; 
for  declaring  the  pope  to  be  a  good  man;  making  a 
noise  during  the  sermon;  ^  laughing  during  preaching; 
criticising  Geneva  for  putting  men  to  death  on  account 
of  differences  in  religion;  having  a  copy  of  Amadis  des 
Gaules;  or  singing  a  song  defamatory  of  Calvin.^  Of 
course  these  instances  are  illustrative  of  only  the  more 
curious  part  of  its  work.  It  had  to  do,  much  of  the 
time,  with  offences  which  any  age  would  deem  seri- 
ous; but  they  exhibit  its  minute  and  inquisitorial  inter- 
ference with  the  Uves  of  the  people  of  Geneva. 

The  more  flagrant  faults  detected  by  the  Consistory 
were  called  by  it  to  the  attention  of  the  magistrates; 


'  Excerpts  from  the  Registres  du  Consistoire,  1542,  in  Opera,  xxi. 

292-305- 

^  1548,  Ihid.,  pp.  422,  428. 

3  1550-51,  Ihid.,  pp.  466,  489,  506. 

4  1556,  1557,  Ibid.,  653,  657,  664,  669. 

^  1558,  1559,  Ibid.,  pp.  700,  701,  712,  723. 


1553]  Struggles  and  Conflicts  283 

while  really  serious  cases  of  crime  and  of  error  in  doc- 
trine appear  to  have  received  direct  judicial  cognisance 
without  consistorial  intervention.  In  their  dealings 
with  the  accused,  whether  brought  to  them  from  the 
Consistory,  or  in  the  ordinary  course  of  justice,  the 
magistrates  acted  with  great  severity.  Torture  was 
freely  used,  as  in  most  European  states  of  that  day. 
There  seems  to  be  no  adequate  ground  to  hold  that 
Calvin's  influence  increased  the  rigours  with  which 
occasional  penal  cases  had  previously  been  handled, — 
one  remembers  the  proposed  torture  of  Jean  Philippe, 
— and  it  is  to  his  credit  that  he  made  a  successful  pro- 
test against  the  cruelty  with  which  death  sentences  were 
executed;  '  but  when  this  has  been  said,  it  must  be 
equally  recognized  that  Calvin's  spirit  favoured  the 
full  and  stringent  execution  of  the  laws,  and  the  in- 
crease of  penalties  for  offences  having  to  do  with 
breaches  of  chastity  and  similar  infringements  of  moral 
order.  The  sum  total  of  persons  punished  and  the 
breadth  of  the  incidence  of  punishment,  were  doubt- 
less very  considerably  augmented  under  his  influence. 
Between  1542  and  1546,  fifty-eight  persons  were  con- 
demned to  death  and  seventy-six  to  banishment;  but 
it  must  be  remembered  that  the  frightful  panic  of  1545 
which  alleged  the  plague  to  have  been  spread  by  witch- 
craft and  conspiracy,  and  led  to  thirty-four  executions, 
falls  in  this  period.^ 

*  March  9,  1545,  Registres  du  Conseil,  xl.  42;   Opera,  xxi.  348. 

^  These  figures  are  from  the  investigations  of  J.  G.  B.  Galiffe- 
Memoircs  de  Vlnst.  nat.  genevois,  for  1863,  pp.  1-116;  and  Kamp- 
schulte,  i.  422-428.  The  conclusions  drawn  by  these  authors  do  not, 
however,  do  full  justice  to  Calvin. 


284  John  Calvin  [1542- 

Undoubtedly  the  Consiston^,  as  new  and  as  limiting 
the  authority  of  the  magistrates,  was  the  least  popular, 
as  it  was  in  Calvin's  judgment  the  most  essential,  of 
his  reformatory  measures.  By  March,  1543,  public 
hostility  made  itself  manifest.  The  Council  of  Sixty 
voted  "that  the  Consistory  has  no  jurisdiction  or  power 
to  refuse  [the  Supper]  but  only  to  admonish  and  then 
report  to  the  Council  so  that  the  government  may  judge 
the  delinquents  according  to  their  demerits."  "^  This 
would  have  been  to  take  from  the  Consistory  its  power 
of  excommunication,  and  to  have  broken  down  Calvin's 
system  at  a  vital  point.  Calvin's  energetic  protest  that 
he  would  taste  exile  or  death  rather  than  yield,  won  the 
day,  for  the  time  being;  but  the  action  of  the  Sixty 
was  ominous  of  contests  to  come. 

Next  to  the  difficulties  involved  in  the  adoption  of  the 
Ordonnances  in  the  form  in  which  Calvin  wished,  his 
first  trials  were  from  want  of  sympathy  on  the  part  of 
his  ministerial  associates.  Henri  de  la  Mare  and 
Jacques  Bernard  could  not  be  expected  to  give  him 
more  than  a  grudging  support.  The  same  was  true 
of  Aime  Champereaux,  whom  the  Genevan  magistrates 
had  called  before  Calvin's  coming.  He  would  gladly 
have  secured  Farel  and  Viret,  but  though  Viret  ob- 
tained permission  from  the  Bernese  authorities  to  come 
to  Geneva  for  a  few  months,  and  greatly  aided  Calvin 
at  the  time  of  his  return,  it  was  impossible  to  secure 
Calvin's  two  friends  for  a  permanent  ministry  at 
Geneva.     The  claims   upon  them  of  Neuchatel  and 


'  Registres  du  Conseil,  xxxvii.  37;   Opera,  xxi.  309;   Calvin  to  Viret, 
Herminjard,  viii.  298. 


1553]  Struggles  and  Conflicts  2CS5 

Lausanne,  and  the  importance  of  holding  those  posts 
for  the  general  cause,  proved  insurmountable  obstacles. 
Gradually,  however,  Calvin  effected  a  change  in  the 
complexion  of  the  Genevan  ministry;  but  worthy  and 
effective  ministers  were  rare,  still  rarer  were  those  who 
sympathised  with  his  strenuous  zeal.  It  was  not  till 
he  had  done  his  training  work  that  his  spiritual  disciples 
were  to  become  abundant.  Bernard  was  glad  to  ex- 
change his  city  pastorate  for  a  similar  post  in  one  of 
Geneva's  country  dependences  early  in  1542.  In 
April,  1543,  a  like  transfer  removed  Henri  de  la  Mare. 
Meanwhile,  in  July,  1542,  four  Frenchmen,  of  varying 
degrees  of  satisfactoriness  to  Calvin,  and  of  differing 
merits,  Philippe  de  I'Eglise,  Pierre  Blanchet,  Mat- 
thieu  de  Geneston,  and  Louis  Treppereau,  were  added 
to  the  Genevan  ministry.'  Blanchet  soon  died  under 
circumstances  which,  as  will  be  seen,  bore  witness  to 
his  courage  and  pastoral  fidelity;  de  I'Eglise  and  Trep- 
pereau were  removed  to  the  country  in  1544,  while 
Geneston  proved  acceptable  to  Calvin.  Two  other 
pastors,  both  Frenchmen  of  opinions  sympathetic  with 
those  of  Calvin,  were  next  added  to  the  Genevan  min- 
istry, Abel  Poupin  in  April,  1543,  and  Jean  Ferron  in 
March,  1544.  By  the  time  of  Ferron's  accession, 
therefore,  thanks  to  these  rapid  changes,  Calvin  was 
surrounded  by  a  fairly  congenial  group  of  fellow- workers, 
but  the  older  inhabitants  of  the  city  may  be  pardoned 
for  looking  upon  this  foreign-born  and  rapidly  shifting 
ministry  as  something  imposed  on  Genevan  life,  even 


'  Registres  du  Conseil,   xxxvi.  65;  Opera,  xxi.  298.     Calvin  to  Farel 
and  Viret,  Herminjard,  viii.  79,  105. 


286  John  Calvin  [1542- 

if  established  in  each  instance  by  the  Genevan  govern- 
ment. The  most  permanent  and  the  most  powerful 
factor  was  Calvin  himself. 

Nor  did  this  ministry,  strenuous  in  its  demands  as 
far  as  Calvin  could  make  it,  command  the  full  respect 
of  the  community.  The  plague,  the  ravages  of  which 
at  Strassburg  have  already  been  noted,  reached  Ge- 
neva in  the  autumn  of  1542.  Blanchet  courageously 
offered  his  services  at  the  hospital,  where  the  magis- 
trates required  a  minister;  but  such  was  the  reluctance 
of  his  colleagues,  that  Calvin  felt,  not  without  appre- 
hension, that  should  Blanchet  die,  he  must  step  into 
the  breach  lest  the  members  of  his  flock  be  left  uncon- 
soled  in  their  extremity.'  The  test  soon  came.  In 
April,  1543,  the  plague  broke  out  again,  and  before  the 
month  was  over  the  Little  Council  ordered  the  minis- 
ters to  send  one  of  their  number  to  the  hospital.  They 
shrank  back.  It  was  reported  to  the  Council  that  some 
declared  they  ''would  rather  be  with  the  devil."  S6- 
bastien  Castellio,  the  head  of  the  school,  of  whom  more 
will  be  said  later,  offered  himself,  but  for  some  reason, 
perhaps  because  the  government  did  not  wish  to  leave 
the  school  without  his  oversight,^  was  not  finally  sent; 
and  Blanchet  once  more  took  the  task,  only  to  fall  a 
victim  to  the  pestilence  less  than  three  weeks  later. 
The  Little  Council  ordered  the  ministers  to  choose  his 


^  Registres  du  Conseil,  xxxvi.  151,  153;  Opera,  xxi.  304;  Calvin's 
letter  to  Viret,  Herminjard,  viii.  163.  See  also,  Kampschulte,  i.  484; 
F.  Buisson,  Sebastien  Castellion,  sa  vie  et  son  ceuvre,  Paris,  1892,  i. 
184;   Cornelius,  p.  436. 

*  So  Cornelius  suggests,  p.  437. 


1553]  Struggles  and  Conflicts  287 

successor,  excepting  Calvin  as  ''necessary  for  the 
Church";  but  five  days  later  the  pastors  presented 
themselves  before  the  government  and  declared  that 
v^hile  they  recognised  the  task  as  a  duty,  "  God  had  not 
yet  given  them  grace  to  have  force  and  constancy  to  go 
to  the  hospital."  They  presented,  instead,  a  French 
lay  refugee,  Simon  Moreau,  who  took  the  burden,  but 
who,  in  discharging  it,  laid  himself  open  to  grave 
charges  of  wrong-doing.^  Calvin's  action,  at  least, 
can  hardly  be  charged  to  cowardice.  When  in  Basel, 
just  after  his  banishment  from  Geneva,  in  1538,  he 
had  visited  Farel's  nephew  then  dying  of  the  same 
dread  disease.^  He  had  lofty  ideas  of  pastoral  duty;^ 
and  it  may  be  that  Beza  was  correct  in  affirming  that 
Calvin  reluctantly  received  exemption  now  from  this 
service ;  ^  though  nothing  in  the  contemporary  records 
supports  his  statement.  The  more  natural  interpre- 
tation is  that  Calvin  shared  the  feeling  of  the  Little 
Council  that  his  life  was  too  valuable  for  the  larger 
service  of  the  city  to  be  risked.  Such  a  cool  judgment, 
however  unattractive,  probably  bore  the  stamp  of  wis- 
dom. Granted  that  the  organisation  and  discipline 
of  the  Genevan  Church  was  a  work  of  God, — and  Cal- 
vin firmly  believed  it  so  to  be, — it  was  well  that  the 
leader  on  whom  all  depended  should  not  be  exposed  to 
danger.     But  the  incident  shows  in  how  great  a  degree 


^  Registres  du  Conseil,  xxxvii.  80,  82,  89,  no,  113,  117;  xl.  72,  79; 
Opera,  xxi.  312-314,  350,  351. 

^  Calvin  to  Farel,  August  20,  1538,  Herminjard,  v.  88.  See  also 
Doumergue,  ii.  294,  295;  iii.  147-150. 

3  Herminjard,  viii.  164. 

*Life  of  1575,  Opera,  xxi.  134. 


288  John  Calvin  [1542- 

the  larger  aspects  of  his  work  outweighed  the  sense  of 
responsibility  for  the  individual  souls  committed  to  his 
charge.  Calvin's  feeling  was  that  of  a  general  in  battle, 
rather  than  of  a  pastor  toward  a  suffering  flock. 

The  pest  had  its  melancholy  sequel  in  1545,  when 
popular  rumour,  charging  its  spread  to  conspiracy  and 
witchcraft,  resulted  in  a  series  of  cruel  tortures  and  ex- 
ecutions. Calvin  was  not  in  advance  of  his  age.  He 
beUeved  the  allegations  to  be  facts;'  but  his  plea  for 
more  merciful  executions  has  already  been  noted. 

Unfortunately  a  conscientious  difference  of  opinion 
led  Calvin,  while  these  untoward  events  were  happen- 
ing, into  a  dispute  that  cost  Geneva  the  services  of  one 
who  had  showed  himself  courageous  when  most  dis- 
played cowardice,  Sebastien  Castellio.  Castellio  (1515- 
63),  who  was  six  years  younger  than  Calvin,  was  a 
Savoyard  by  birth,  had  risen  from  very  humble  origins 
to  distinction  in  humanistic  learning  at  Lyons,  had 
fled  to  Strassburg  by  reason  of  his  Protestant  sym- 
pathies, and,  while  there,  had  for  a  brief  time  been  a 
member  of  Calvin's  household.^  Impetuous  and  rather 
arrogant  of  his  scholarship,  he  was  courageous  and 
kind-hearted.  At  Farel's  recommendation  he  had 
become  a  teacher  of  the  Genevan  school  on  June  20, 
1 541,  nearly  three  months  before  Calvin's  return.  It 
was  natural  that  Calvin  should  prefer  the  restoration 


1  Registres  du  Conseil,  xl.  42,  60;  Opera,  xxi.  348,  349;  Calvin  to 
Myconius,  Ihid.,  xii.  55. 

2  The  best  account  of  Castellio  is  that  of  Buisson,  already  cited, 
p.  286.  See  also  R.  Stahelin,  in  Hauck's  Realencyklopadie  fiir  prot. 
Theol.u.Kirche,m.'jso',  CorneUus,  pp.  438-445;  Choisy,  pp.  63-76. 


1553]  Struggles  and  Conflicts  289 

of  his  old  friend  Mathurin  Cordier  to  the  rectorship  in 
the  school  which  that  teacher  had  occupied  before  Cal- 
vin's banishment;  but  when  it  proved  impossible  to 
draw  Cordier  from  his  new  home  in  Neuchatel,  Cas- 
tellio  was  given  the  place  in  permanency,  in  April,  1542, 
with  the  understanding  that  he  should  maintain  two 
sub-teachers  and  preach  at  the  village  of  Vendovre/ 
The  time  was  one  of  great  scarcity  in  Geneva,  and  his 
salary  proved  all  too  small  for  his  needs.  This,  and 
possibly  other  considerations,  added  to  a  real  desire 
for  the  pastorate,  led  him  to  propose  to  exchange  his 
teachership  for  the  active  ministry.  The  Little  Coun- 
cil favoured  the  plan  on  December  1 7,  1 543 ;  but  Cal- 
vin opposed,  since  on  his  examination  by  the  Venerable 
Compagnie  Castellio  had  criticised  the  inspiration  of 
Solomon's  Song,  holding  it  to  be  illustrative  of  that 
monarch's  less  reputable  characteristics,  and  also  the 
current  Genevan  interpretation  of  the  clause  in  the 
Apostles'  Creed,  "He  descended  into  hell,"  which 
taught  that  it  means  that  Christ  on  the  cross  suffered 
vicariously  the  pains  of  hell.  For  these  reasons, 
Calvin  declared  to  the  Little  Council  that  Castellio 
ought  not  to  enter  the  pastorate.^ 

In  Calvin's  judgment,  the  chief  point  at  issue  was 
Castellio's  rejection  of  an  accepted  book  of  the  Old 
Testament.  It  is  easy  to  see  why  he  so  felt.  The 
Scriptures  were  to  him  the  corner-stone  of  faith  and 


^  Registres  du  Conseil,  xxxv.  543;   Opera,  xxi.  294. 

^  Registres  du  Conseil,  xxxviii.  10,  30,  45;  Opera,  xxi.  326-329; 
Calvin  to  Viret,  February  11,  1544,  Herminjard,  ix.  156;  the  certi- 
ficate given  by  the  Genevan  ministers  to  Castellio,  Ibid.,  pp.  157-160. 


290 


John  Calvin  l!is42- 


practice.  In  them  the  Holy  Spirit  spake  with  unques- 
tionable authority.  From  the  vantage  ground  of  an 
absolute  acceptance  of  them,  whole,  and  entire,  as  the 
"Word  of  God"  and  from  that  only,  in  his  judgment, 
could  the  Papacy  be  resisted  and  a  Christian  commu- 
nity be  built  up.  In  an  age  when  no  doctrine  of  pro- 
gress in  revelation  or  of  the  colouration  of  di\ine  truth 
through  its  human  interpreters  had  yet  commanded 
assent,  CastelHo's  position  seemed  extremely  danger- 
ous. The  attack  thus  begun  might  end  in  destroying 
the  authority  of  all  Scripture;  and  what  Evangelical 
foundation  would  then  be  left  ?  Yet  the  Genevan  min- 
isters, led  by  Calvin,  treated  Castellio  with  what,  for 
the  time,  was  moderation.  On  his  expressed  intention 
to  remove  to  Basel  they  gave  him  a  certificate  over 
Calvin's  signature,  stating  frankly  the  points  at  issue, 
but  testifying  also : ' — 

He  resigned  the  headship  of  the  school  voluntarily.  In 
that  office  he  so  bore  himself  that  we  judged  him  worthy  of 
the  sacred  ministry;  but  that  he  was  not  admitted  was  not 
on  account  of  any  faults  of  life,  nor  any  impious  dogma 
regarding  the  chief  points  of  our  faith,  but  this  one  reason 
prevented  which  we  have  set  forth. 

Castellio  felt,  naturally  enough,  that  Calvin  had 
stood  the  one  barrier  to  the  reahsation  of  his  hopes. 
He  complained  to  Viret  that  Calvin  "had  never  ad- 
monished  him  save  with   temper  and   reproaches";^ 


^  Herminjard,  ix.  159,  160. 

2  So  Viret  told  Calvin  in  a  letter  of  February  16,  1544,  in  which  he 
urged  considerate  treatment  of  Castellio,  Ibid.,  p.  164. 


1553]  Struggles  and  Conflicts  291 

and,  doubtless,  as  he  brooded  over  the  matter,  his  sense 
of  antagonism  grew  to  hostility  toward  the  whole  Ge- 
nevan ministry.  At  its  regular  meeting  on  May  30, 
1544,  he  drew  an  unflattering  comparison  between  the 
conduct  of  the  Genevan  pastors  and  that  of  Paul  as 
set  forth  in  the  sixth  chapter  of  II.  Corinthians.  The 
whole  bitterness  of  a  disappointed  man  spoke  in  his 
words.  Calvin  reported  his  conduct  to  the  Little 
Council,  which  heard  all  parties  at  length,  and,  on 
June  1 2th,  dismissed  Castellio  from  his  small  charge  at 
Vendovre  "during  the  good  pleasure  of  the  govern- 
ment." ^  He  left  Geneva  at  once  to  begin  a  career 
harassed  by  distressing  poverty  at  Basel;  and  these 
Genevan  experiences  led  to  a  lifelong  hostility  between 
Calvin  and  Castellio.  In  Castellio  the  use  of  compul- 
sion in  matters  of  religion  in  general,  and  its  employ- 
ment in  the  case  of  Servetus  in  particular,  was  to  find 
a  manly  and  able  opponent,  who  stood  in  advance  of 
the  spirit  of  his  age. 

On  the  whole,  however,  Calvin  was  strengthening 
his, position  in  Geneva.  By  the  autumn  of  1545,  he 
had  succeeded  substantially  in  completing  the  trans- 
formation of  the  city  ministry.  Nicolas  des  Gallars 
and  Michel  Cop,  the  latter  a  brother  of  the  one-time 
Parisian  rector  and  both  hearty  supporters  of  Calvin, 
were  added  to  the  Genevan  pastorate  in  1544  and  1545. 
The  place  of  the  deceased  Geneston  was  filled,  in  the 
last  named  year,  by  Raimond  Chauvet.  Champe- 
reaux,  the  only  remaining  representative  of   those  in 


^  Registres  du  Conseil,  xxxviii.  231,  237,  246;    Opera,  xxi.  336-33S; 
Calvin's  letter  of  May  31,  1544,  to  Farel,  Herminjard,  ix.  264. 


292 


John  Calvin  [1542- 


office  at  Calvin's  return,  was  removed  to  the  country 
in  July,  1545.  The  Genevan  ministry  thus  became  a 
fairly  homogeneous  body,  of  which  Calvin  was  the  ruling 
spirit.  Thus  strengthened,  Calvin  turned  his  atten- 
tion, in  1545,  to  a  more  strenuous  administration  of 
discipline,  especially  in  breaches  of  chastity.  The  su- 
pervision of  the  Consistory  was  intensified  in  regard  to 
such  offences,  and  the  zeal  of  the  magistrates  stimu- 
lated. It  was  ordered  that,  after  having  received  pun- 
ishment from  the  civil  authorities,  those  guilty  of  such 
wrong-doing  should  be  required  to  appear  before  the 
Consistory  for  proper  ecclesiastical  admonition,' — a 
proceeding  which  appeared  to  many  an  added  and  un- 
necessary disgrace.  To  Calvin,  it  was  an  assertion  of 
the  just  disciplinary  powers  of  the  Church. 

Though  Calvin  had  been  thus  far,  on  the  whole,  suc- 
cessful in  his  work,  it  is  evident  that  elements  in  abun- 
dance existed  for  the  growth  of  an  opposition  party  in 
Geneva,  and  the  forces  unfriendly  to  him  had  been 
strengthened  by  the  results  of  the  peace  made  with 
Bern  in  February,  1544,  in  obtaining  which  he  bore  so 
honourable  a  part.  As  one  of  its  consequences,  the  sur- 
vivors of  the  '' Artichauds"  and  their  sympathisers  had 
returned  to  swell  the  ranks  of  those  hostile  to  Cahin's 
ecclesiastical  constitution.  This  opposition  was  made 
up  of  most  various  forces.  Some  were  simply  represen- 
tatives of  old  Genevan  families,  not  opposed  to  the  Ref- 
ormation, but  disincHned  to  view  with  favour  the  strict 
rule  which  Calvin  had  imposed,  and  disposed  to  look 


^  Registres  du  Conseil,  of  October  13,  1545,  quoted  by  Cornelius, 
P-  456. 


155.^]  Struggles  and  Conflicts  293 

upon  him,  the  other  ministers,  cand  the  French  refugees 
whom  he  attracted  to  Geneva,  as  so  many  intruders  into 
a  city  which  had  won  liberty  for  itself  only  to  come  under 
the  spiritual  bondage  of  foreigners.  Others  were 
hostile  to  any  kind  of  ecclesiastical  or  governmental 
discipline  that  would  limit  the  free  life  and  abundant 
amusements  for  which  Geneva  was  noted.  To  be  forced 
to  hear  sermons  and  to  be  reprimanded  by  the  Consistory 
was  not  that  for  w^hich  they  had  thrown  off  the  power 
of  Savoy  and  withstood  Bern  at  such  cost.  But  neither 
element  produced  a  really  worthy  and  efficient  leader, 
and  to  the  incompetence  of  the  opposition,  in  the  face 
of  Calvin's  iron  determination,  rather  than  to  its  want 
of  numbers,  his  success  in  the  conflicts  from  1546  to 
1555  was  to  be  due. 

Many  writers  have  deduced  the  chief  features  of  this 
opposition,  the  principal  causes  of  which  have  just  been 
noted,  from  the  alleged  prevalence  in  Geneva  of  relig- 
ious Libertinism.  The  ascription  of  hostility  to  this 
source  has,  indeed,  become  almost  a  Calvinistic  tra- 
dition.^ The  Libertins  or,  as  they  preferred  to  call 
themselves,  the  "Spirituels,"  were  a  pantheistic  anti- 
nomian  sect  which  had  its  origin  in  the  preaching  of  a 
certain  Coppin,  at  Lille,  about  1529,  and,  by  1545,  was 
considerably  vddespread  in  France,  where  its  supporters 
obtained  protection  for  a  time  from  Marguerite  d'An- 
gouleme,  though  there  is  no  evidence  that  she  shared 
their    views.      Calvin    had    encountered    two    of    its 


■^  E.g.  Henry,  ii.  398-446;  E.  Stiihelin,  Johannes  Calvin:  Lehen 
tmd  ausgew'ihlte  Schriften,  1863,  i.  383;  Schail,  vii.  498-501;  R. 
Stahelin,  in  Hauck's  Realencyklopadie,  iii.  669. 


294 


John  Calvin  [1542- 


principal  representatives,  an  enthusiast  named  Quintin 
soon  after  his  acceptance  of  the  Reformed  faith  at  Paris, 
and  an  ex-priest,  Antoine  Pocquet,  in  Geneva  itself, 
probably  in  1542.  To  their  thinking,  all  is  but  a  mani- 
festation of  the  one  Spirit— all  is  God.  Nothing  can 
be  really  bad,  and  the  common  distinction  between  good 
and  evil  acts  is  baseless,  since  all  are  alike  the  work  of 
God.  Anything  more  repugnant  to  Calvin's  strenuous 
morality  it  would  be  hard  to  imagine.  And,  early  in 
1545,  Calvin  wrote  against  the  holders  of  these  views 
one  of  his  most  \dgorous  and  effective  tracts,  that  Contre 
la  Secte  phantastique  et  furieuse  des  Lihertins  qui  se 
nomment  Spirituels;  ^  which  caused  displeasure  to  Mar- 
guerite,^ but  seems  to  have  done  much  to  check  the 
spread  of  these  opinions  in  France.  Yet  neither  in  this 
tract  nor  in  his  letters  of  this  and  the  immediately  subse- 
quent time  does  Calvin  seem  to  feel  that  the  Spirituels 
were  a  Genevan  peril.  He  tells  Marguerite  d'Angou- 
leme  that  it  was  the  ill  wrought  in  the  Netherlands, 
Artois,  and  Hainault  that  induced  him  to  enter  the 
lists  against  them.  Though  he  speaks  of  Pocquet' s 
sojourn  at  Geneva  and  attempt  to  win  approval  from 
him,  the  characteristic  incidents  of  Spirituel  teaching 
which  he  relates  in  the  tract  have  to  do  with  Quintin 
and  his  stay  in  Paris. ^  True  some  incidents  of  the 
time  show  sporadic  examples  of  opinions  and  practices 


^  opera,  vii.  145-248. 

2  See  Calvin's  letter  to  her  of  April  28,  1545,  Opera,  xii.  65. 

3  Opera,  vii.  160,  163,  185.  He  says  of  Pocquet's  stay  at  Geneva 
that  he  had  "dissimule  sa  meschanie  doctrine,"  and  gives  no  impression 
of  effective  labours  there  done  by  this  Spirituel. 


1553]  Struggles  and  Conflicts  295 

at  Geneva  which  were  esscnlially  those  of  the  Spir- 
itiiels.'  There  were  doubtless  occasional  spiritual 
Libertines  in  the  city;  but  to  ascribe  any  consider- 
able weight  to  them  in  the  opposition  to  Calvin  is  to 
give  them  an  importance  not  their  due.  They  did 
not  constitute  a  party.^" 

Calvin's  first  conspicuous  conflict  with  the  elements 
in  opposition  came  early  in  1546.  Pierre  Ameaux^  was 
a  member  of  the  Little  Council,  though  not  sprung 
from  any  Genevan  family  of  prominence.  His  ances- 
tral business  of  manufacturing  playing-cards  had  been 
broken  up  by  the  new  discipline,  he  seems  to  have  been 
imbittered  by  the  protracted  litigation  necessary  before 
he  could  secure  a  divorce  from  his  unworthy  wife,  and 
he  had  been  on  cordial  terms  with  the  ministers,  de  la 
Mare  and  de  TEglise,  whose  feeling  towards  Calvin 
was  now  far  from  one  of  friendhness.  On  January  26, 
1645,  a-t  a  supper-party  in  his  own  house,  after  the  wine 

'  Notably  in  the  case  of  Benolte  Ameaux,  wife  of  Pierre  Ameaux, 
whose  trial  for  divorce,  sought  by  her  husband,  between  January, 
1544,  and  June,  1545,  falls  just  in  this  period.  See  Heniy,  ii. 
412;  J.  G.  B,  Galiffe,  Mem.  de  I'lnsi.  nat.  genevois,  1863,  p.  14; 
Kampschulte,  ii.  19.  The  opinions  of  Gruet  do  not  seem  to  have 
been  specially  those  of  the  Spirituels  on  important  points,  e.g.  God 
and  Christ.  Compare  Calvin's  report  on  his  book,  Henry,  ii.,  appen- 
dix, pp.  120-122,  and  Calvin's  account  of  the  Spirituels,  Opera,  vii. 
1 78-181,  198-200. 

2  The  subject  is  well  discussed  by  Kampschulte,  ii.  13-19  (pub- 
lished in  1899).  He  shows,  furthermore,  that  the  application  of  the 
nickname  "Libertin"  to  the  party  in  pohtical  opposition  to  Calvin 
is  not  contemporary  with  the  reformer, 

3  J.  G.  B.  Galiffe,  Nouvelles  pages  dliistoire  exacte  in  Memoire 
de  VInst.  nat.  genevois  for  1863,  pp.  1-16;  Kampschulte,  ii.  20-27; 
Cornelius,  pp.  462-471;    Choisy,  pp.  77-80. 


296  John  Calvin  [1542- 

had  circulated  freely,  Ameaux  expressed  his  dislike  of 
Calvin,  declaring  him  to  be  only  a  Picard,  a  preacher  of 
false  doctrine,  and  an  evil  man.^  He  also  accused  his 
fellow -counsellors  of  undue  dependence  on  the  reformer, 
and  affirmed  that  foreign  residents  would  soon  be  masters 
of  the  city.  It  was  the  utterance  of  an  imbittered  man 
to  a  supposedly  confidential  audience;  but  one  of  his 
hearers  reported  the  speech  at  once  to  the  Little  Coun- 
cil and  Ameaux  was  imprisoned.  To  Calvin  the  attack 
seemed  more  than  a  personal  affront,  it  was  a  denial 
of  his  authority  as  an  interpreter  of  the  Word  of  God, 
and  therefore  an  insult  to  "the  honour  of  Christ," 
whose  servant  Calvin  felt  himself  to  be.^  We  have  here 
an  illustration  of  that  identification  of  his  own  cause 
with  that  of  God,  which  was  the  source  of  much  of 
Calvin's  strength,  and  also  of  much  of  his  severity. 
The  trial  dragged.  The  Little  Council  was  divided,  and 
a  considerable  portion  would  have  exacted  slight  pun- 
ishment of  the  offender.  The  Two  Hundred  were 
called  in;  and,  after  a  stormy  discussion,  it  was  or- 
dered, on  March  2d,  that  Ameaux  appear  before  it,  Cal- 
vin also  being  present,  and  ask  pardon  on  his  knees, 
"of  God,  the  government,  and  Cahin."  To  CaKin's 
thinking  this  was  not  enough.  He  declared  that  he 
would  neither  accept  the  Council's  imitation  to  be  pres- 
ent at  its  session  nor  enter  the  pulpit,  till  the  "name 
of  God"  had  been  vindicated.      At  the  head   of  the 


1  Registres  du  Conseil,  xl.  359;  Opera,  xxi.  368.  Many  excerpts 
from  the  Registres  relating  to  this  matter  may  be  found,  Ibid.,  pp. 
368-377;    Cornelius  also  gives  the  chief  passages. 

2  Calvin  to  Farel,  February  13,  1546,  Opera,  xii.  284.  See  Choisy, 
p.  80. 


1553]  Struggles  and  Conflicts  297 

Consistory,  he  now  appeared  before  the  Little  Council, 
the  Sixty,  and  the  Two  Hundred,  and  demanded  ade- 
quate punishment.  Thus  admonished,  the  Two  Hund- 
red retracted  its  mild  sentence  and  ordered  the  Little 
Council  to  take  up  the  case  anew.  In  spite  of  popular 
restiveness  in  the  Saint-Gervais  district  in  which 
Ameaux  lived,  he  was  sentenced,  on  April  8th,  to  make 
the  tour  of  the  city,  clad  in  a  shirt,  bareheaded,  torch 
in  hand,  and  on  his  knees  to  beg  mercy  of  God  and  the 
government. 

Calvin  had  won  a  notable  triumph,  as  he  believed, 
for  the  cause  of  Gospel  order.  A  member  of  the  inner 
circle  of  government  had  criticised  him  in  his  office 
and  had  paid  the  penalty  by  a  humiliating  penance. 
Nor  was  this  all.  Henry  de  la  Mare  ventured  to  ex- 
press his  dissent  from  Calvin's  methods.  He  w^as  im- 
prisoned by  order  of  the  Little  Council  on  March  1 7th, 
and  ultimately  deprived  of  the  rural  pastorate  that  still 
remained  to  him.  Yet  the  situation  was  ominous  as 
to  the  future. 

It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that  the  completion  of 
the  process  by  which  the  Genevan  city  ministry  became 
a  body  in  sympathy  with  Calvin  was  followed,  in  1545, 
by  a  marked  increase  in  the  activity  of  the  Consistory. 
Evidences  of  multiplied  exercise  of  discipline  continued, 
and,  in  the  main,  had  the  support  of  the  city  govern- 
ment. To  ministerial  initiative,  though  enacted  of 
course  by  the  civil  authorities,  must  be  credited  the 
curious  laws  regarding  taverns,  of  April  and  May,  1546.^ 


I  Roget,  ii.  232,  234;    Cornelius,  p.  474;    Doumergue,  iii.  70-73. 
Many  features  were  borrowed  from  earlier  regulations. 


298  John  Calvin  [1542- 

In  their  place,  five  "abbeys"  were  established,  as  re- 
ligiously conducted  houses  of  entertainment.  No  food 
or  drink  was  to  be  served  to  any  guest  who  refused  to 
say  grace;  the  Bible  was  to  be  at  hand;  all  oaths  and 
unseemly  conversation  were  to  be  severely  repressed. 
Worthy  as  was  the  object  sought,  the  attempt,  of  course, 
failed,  and  before  the  end  of  June  the  impracticable 
new  regulations  were  abandoned. 

But  some  of  Calvin's  ministerial  colleagues  surpassed 
him  in  intensity  of  disciplinary  zeal.  In  his  own  work 
there  was  not  infrequently  a  moderation  wanting  in 
theirs.  Such  an  instance  occurred  in  the  spring  and 
summer  of  1546.  The  day  of  morality  plays,  so  be- 
loved in  the  middle  ages,  had  not  yet  passed.  At  the 
request  of  some  of  liis  flock  Abel  Poupin,  one  of 
the  ministers,  had  drawn  a  drama  from  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles;  but  though  Calvin  did  not  disapprove,  the 
fiery  Michel  Cop  opposed  that  theatrical  representation 
in  the  Venerable  Compagnie,  and  forced  a  protest  from 
that  body  in  the  name  of  all  the  ministers  to  the  Little 
Council/  That  board  of  magistrates  ordered  Poupin 
to  continue  his  work  and  told  the  ministers  "not  to 
mix  in  politics."  Cop,  not  to  be  restrained,  carried 
his  denunciation  into  the  pulpit.  Almost  a  riot  oc- 
curred. Calvin  did  his  utmost  to  calm  it;  but  on  Cop's 
being  brought  before  the  Little  Council,  Calvin  de- 
fended the  rights  of  the  ministry  to  freedom  of  expres- 
sion; yet  with  such  moderation  and  skill  that  the 
matter  was  adjusted,  so  that,  after  the  disputed  play  had 


I  Registres  du  Conseil,  xli.  114,  142;    Opera,  xxi.  382,  385;    Calvin 
to  Farel,  Ibid.,  xii.  347,  355;    Cornelius,  p.  475. 


1553]  Struggles  and  Conflicts  299 

been  held,  further  theatrical  representations  were  sus- 
pended by  the  civil  authorities  "till  the  times  should  be 
more  fitting."  Undoubtedly  Calvin  found  his  situa- 
tion in  the  face  of  the  public  made  more  trying  by  an 
over-zeal  in  an  associate  which  he  did  not  share,  but 
could  not  wholly  repudiate. 

Not  so  moderate  was  Calvin's  attitude  on  the  dispute 
regarding  baptismal  names  which  arose  in  the  month 
following  the  settlement  of  the  controversy  regarding 
theatrical  representations.  Moved  undoubtedly  by 
ministerial  impulse,  the  Little  Council,  on  August  27, 
1546,  forbade  the  imposition  of  the  favourite  name 
"Claude,"  as  showing  an  idolatrous  reverence  to  a 
saint  once  revered  in  the  Genevan  territory.  The  order 
grew  out  of  the  refusal  of  Ami  Chappius  to  permit  the 
minister  to  substitute  in  the  baptism  of  his  son  the 
name  "Abraham"  for  that  now  condemned.  About 
two  months  later,  a  similar  refusal  of  the  preacher  at 
Saint- Gervais  to  give  the  names  Aime  or  Martin  resulted 
in  a  riotous  protest  from  a  part  of  the  congregation. 
At  the  suggestion  of  Calvin  and  the  other  ministers,  the 
Little  Council  ordered  Calvin  "to  make  a  list"  of  ob- 
jectionable names.  The  result  was  the  edict  on  bap- 
tismal names  which  became  a  law  on  November  2  2d 
of  the  same  year.^  Undoubtedly  much  could  be  said 
in  favour  of  its  prohibition  of  such  names  as  Sepulcre, 
Cross,  Pentecost,  Sunday,  and  that  of  Jesus ;  but  by  no 
means  all  were  in  these  categories.  To  modern  thinking, 
it  was  an  unwarranted  invasion  of  personal  freedom. 


^  Text,  Opera,  xa.  49.     For  action  of  the  Council  see  Ibid.,  xxi. 
386-391. 


300  John  Calvin  [1542- 

On  the  whole,  the  year  1546  was  one  of  decided 
success  for  Calvin  in  his  task  of  imposing  what  he  be- 
lieved to  be  Gospel  discipline  on  Geneva,  and  it  must 
have  been  with  satisfaction  that  he  saw  citizenship 
given  to  his  brother  Antoine.  by  the  Little  Council  on 
August  3d,  "in  view  of  the  great  pains  which  his 
brother  [i.e.  Calvin]  had  taken  for  the  advancement 
of  the  Word  of  God  and  to  maintain  the  honour  of  the 
city."  ^  Yet  he  did  not  deceive  himself  as  to  the  growth 
of  opposition  or  the  extent  to  which  his  work  lacked 
permanency  and  completion.  His  strength  was  also 
in  a  measure  his  weakness.  From  the  time  of  his 
return,  in  spite  of  temporary  diminution  of  their  num- 
bers during  the  ravages  of  the  plague,  refugees  from 
lands  where  the  Evangelical  cause  was  persecuted 
had  been  flocking  to  Geneva.  The  vast  majority  of 
these  new  residents  were  French.  Most  of  them  were 
men  of  character  and  industry,  many  were  men  of 
property.  From  them  the  whole  ministry  of  the  city 
had  been  recruited.  They  filled  the  houses  which  the 
banishments  and  voluntary  exiles  due  to  the  long  party 
struggles  had  made  vacant,  they  built  up  the  trade  of 
the  city.  They  were  a  most  valuable  addition  to  the 
population: — but  they  were  foreigners.^  The  older 
Genevans  resented  their  prominence,  and  this  resent- 
ment directed  itself  especially  against  the  ecclesiastical 
constitution  and  above  all  against  the  discipUnary 
activity   of   the    Consistory,    which   seemed    to    these 


^  Opera,  xxi.  385. 

2  Compare  Kampschulte,  ii.  37-47-     Not    less  than    130  of   these 
refugees  were  admitted  burghers  in  1547. 


1553]  Struggles  and  Conflicts  301 

opponents  the   chief  yoke    that    the    new-comers,   led 
by  Calvin,  had  laid  on  the  city. 

Most  conspicuous  at  this  time  as  a  critic  of  the  Con- 
sistory was  a  Genevan  of  wealth,  and  of  influence  by 
reason  of  his  family  connections,  Franfois  Favre, 
whose  ungovernable  daughter,  Franchequine,  was  the 
wife  of  Ami  Perrin, — the  latter  a  man  prominently 
identified,  as  will  be  recalled,  with  the  "  Guillermins," 
and  instrumental  in  Calvin's  return.  Both  Franjois 
and  his  son  Gaspard  were  of  easy  morals;  and,  with 
the  strengthening  of  the  discipline  of  the  Consistory 
which  was  begun  in  1545,  their  words  and  actions, 
prominent  as  they  themselves  were,  were  speedily 
brought  under  its  cognisance.  In  February  and 
March,  1546,  they  appeared  indeed  before  the  Con- 
sistory, but  criticised  and  as  far  as  possible  repudiated 
its  authority  ''as  that  of  another  jurisdiction  above  the 
courts  of  Geneva."  ^  Yet  if  church-government  was  to 
be  effective  it  must  apply  to  small  and  great  alike.  A 
fresh  problem  soon  occurred.  On  March  21,  1546, 
Antoine  Lect  celebrated  the  betrothal  of  his  daughter 
to  Claude  Philippe,  son  of  the  executed  ''Artichaud" 
leader.  Among  the  guests,  who  included  Ami  Perrin 
and  his  wife,  and  the  syndic  Amblard  Corne,  then  presi- 
dent of  the  Consistory  itself,  dancing  was  indulged,  in 
contravention  of  the  city  ordinances.  The  Consistory 
proceeded  to  discipline,  the  offence  was  reported  to  the 
Little  Council,  and  the  dancers  imprisoned.  On  the 
expiration  of  their  brief  sentence  they  were  ordered 
before  the  Consistory  for  admonition.     Corne,  who  had 

^  Consistory  records,  (quoted  by  Cornelius,  p.  483. 


302  John  Calvin  [1542- 

the  religious  interest  of  the  city  at  heart,  readily  obeyed ; 
but  Perrin  held  out  for  nearly  a  month  before  yielding 
compliance,  while  his  wife  took  a  defiant  attitude 
throughout  the  whole  proceeding.^  For  the  time  being 
Perrin  yielded;  but  in  heart  he  had  become  Calvin's 
opponent,  and  from  now  on  he,  even  more  than  the 
Favres,  was  the  real  strength  of  the  opposition.  Vain 
and  self-seeking,  he  had  not  in  him  the  stuff  to  make  a 
rallying  centre  of  moral  force,  but  he  was  strong  enough 
to  cause  Calvin  abundant  difficulties,  and  had  he  been 
a  man  of  more  character  might  have  won  the  struggle. 
Calvin's  success  in  the  condemnation  of  Ameaux,  while 
these  events  were  taking  place,  rendered  opposition  for 
the  time  being  unpromising,  and  during  the  summer 
of  1546,  his  control  seemed  fairly  secure.  Gaspard 
Favre,  having  shown  his  contempt  by  playing  bowls  in  a 
garden  during  service,  was  made  to  appear  before  the 
Consistory  on  June  27th;  and  so  heatedly  replied  to 
Calvin,  that  the  latter,  quick-tempered  as  has  already 
been  seen,  abruptly  left  the  meeting.  The  Consistory 
secured  his  imprisonment  by  the  Little  Council  for 
his   various   offences.^ 

With  the  opening  month  of  1547,  however,  came  a 
change  unfavourable  to  Calvin.  The  February  elec- 
tion was  largely  won  by  Calvin's  opponents.  Just 
before  they  had  taken  place,  Francois  Favre  had  at  last 


1  opera,  xxi.  376-381;  Calvin  to  Viret  and  Farel,  Ihid.,  xii.  334; 
Cornelius,  p.  473.  On  the  first  hearing,  the  sharp-tongued  Franche- 
quine  cried  out  against  Calvin:  "Wicked  man,  you  wish  to  drink 
the  blood  of  our  [Favre]  family;  but  you  will  leave  Geneva  before 
we  do." 

2  Opera,  xxi.  382,  383. 


1553]  Struggles  and  Conflicts  303 

been  punished,  on  January  24,  1547,  by  the  civil  au- 
thorities for  his  offences  against  the  seventh  command- 
ment; and,  on  the  expiration  of  his  sentence,  was 
ordered  to  appear  before  the  Consistory  for  ad- 
monition. The  war  between  Charles  V.  and  the 
German  Protestants  was  in  progress,  and  Calvin  had 
been  sent  to  northern  Switzerland  to  ascertain  its  threat- 
ening course,  so  the  admonition  was  spoken  in  the  name 
of  the  Consistory  by  one  of  the  most  strenuous  of  the 
pastors,  Abel  Poupin.  Favre  defiantly  declared  that 
he  ''did  not  recognise"  the  ministers;  they  rejoined  that 
they  "did  not  recognise  him  as  a  sheep  of  the  flock  of 
Jesus  Christ,  but  as  a  dog  and  excommunicate."  The 
scene  was  one  of  recrimination.  On  Calvin's  return, 
this  "rebellion"  was  reported  to  the  civil  authorities, 
by  whom,  in  spite  of  the  results  of  the  recent  election, 
Favre  was  ordered  to  pay  due  reverence  to  the  Con- 
sistory.^ He  failed  to  appear,  but  his  daughter,  who 
was  Perrin's  wife,  and  his  son,  Gaspard,  presented 
themselves  in  his  behalf  with  loud  protests  against  the 
treatment  he  had  experienced  from  the  ministers, 
insisting  that  the  matter  be  carried  to  the  Little  Council. 
On  March  yth,  accompanied  by  her  husband,  Favre's 
daughter  repeated  the  demand  before  the  civil  authori- 
ties. Perrin  was  thus  publicly  ranged  with  the  op- 
position. The  question  at  issue  was  as  to  whether 
offenders  punished  by  the  government  must  endure 
further  discipHne  by  the  Consistory.  None  disputed 
judicial  control;  but  to  add  ecclesiastical  censure  to 
civil  imprisonment  was  what  Favre,  and  now  Perrin 

^  Ibid.,  pp.  395,  396;    Cornelius,  p.  493. 


304 


John  Calvin  [1542- 


also,  resented.  Their  hostility  is  readily  comprehen- 
sible. It  was  in  a  certain  sense  double  punishment 
that  was  imposed.  Yet  to  Calvin  the  whole  main- 
tenance of  the  ecclesiastical  constitution  seemed  bound 
up  in  the  preservation  of  this  consistorial  power.^ 
The  Little  Council  was  divided.  It  inclined  to  the 
position  that  reference  to  the  Consistory  was  only  at 
the  good  pleasure  of  the  civil  authorities;  but  the  firm 
attitude  of  the  ministers,  led  by  Calvin,  worked  a 
compromise.  On  March  29th,  the  Council  voted  that 
the  rebellious  and  obstinate  should  be  sent  to  the  Con- 
sistory after  punishment  by  the  civil  courts;  but  not 
the  repentant.  On  the  whole,  Calvin  had  held  his  own 
in  a  difficult  struggle.  The  power  of  the  Consistory 
was  practically  intact,  though  Calvin  could  count  on 
no  hearty  support  from  the  Little  Council. 

But  a  new  peril  threatened  him, — that  of  a  popular 
demonstration.  Perrin,  conscious  that  Calvin  had 
substantially  held  his  own  with  the  Little  Council, 
determined  to  make  use  of  the  relations  which  his 
position  as  General-captain  of  the  city  might  estabhsh 
between  him  and  the  Arquebusiers,  whose  target- 
practice  was  regarded  as  a  popular  festival.  Just  how 
far  he  planned  to  go  is  uncertain;  but  he  evidently 
purposed  a  demionstration  which  should  modify  the 
discipHnary  poHcy  which  Calvin  upheld  in  Church  and 
State.  The  issue  took  a  curious  turn.  Slashed  hose 
were  much  admired  by  the  youth  of  Geneva,  but  had 
been  forbidden  by  the  government  as  a  sign  of  sinful 


I  Calvin  to  Viret,  March  27,  1547,  Opera,  xii.  505;    Cornelius,  pp= 
494,  495- 


1553]  Struggles  and  Conflicts  305 

luxury.  Perrin,  on  May  9,  1547,  asked  the  Little 
Council  to  permit  the  target  festival.  The  authorities 
promptly  consented;  but  renewed  therewith  the  pro- 
hibition of  the  desired  garments.  Here  then  was  a 
lever  to  arouse  popular  feeling  against  the  supporters 
of  discipline  in  the  Little  Council.  The  Arquebusiers 
asked  that  their  use  be  allowed  at  the  festival.  The 
issue  was  so  threatening  that  the  Little  Council  called 
the  Two  Hundred  for  the  25th, — the  day  before  the 
appointed  parade  and  festival.  Could  Perrin  succeed, 
he  intended  doubtless  to  push  the  matter  much  further; 
but  before  the  Two  Hundred  Calvin's  persuasive  skill 
proved  an  insurmountable  barrier.  In  an  appeal  of 
great  force,  Calvin  urged  that  of  itself  the  question  of 
slashed  hose  was  of  small  consequence ;  but  to  open  the 
door  to  excess  was  very  serious.  Such  would  be  the 
effect  of  the  repeal  of  the  recently  re-enacted  pro- 
hibition. It  would  lead  to  contempt  of  God  and  of  the 
government.  The  Two  Hundred  supported  Calvin's 
contention ;  and  Perrin  showed  his  feeling  of  defeat  by 
a  sudden  journey  to  Bern.  As  Calvin  wrote  to  Viret, 
Perrin  had  found  that  the  people  were  with  the  reformers 
far  more  than  he  had  imagined.' 

Calvin  had  escaped,  for  the  time  being,  the  imminent 
peril  of  the  overthrow  of  his  system  by  governmental 
action  or  popular  tumult;  but  he  was  far  from  secure. 
Perrin,  though  defeated,  had  influence  enough  to  be 
sent,  in  June,  on  a  highly  honourable  embassy  to  the 
court  of  France  to  greet  the  new  king,  Henry  II.     His 


'  Opera,  xii.  551,  532.     On  the  whole  transaction,  see  Roget,  ii. 
275-284,  and  Cornelius,  pp.  497-501. 


3o6  John  Calvin  [1542- 

friend,  Pierre  Vandel,  still  carried  on  a  work  of  oppo- 
sition in  the  city.  Though  Francois  Favre  deemed  it 
best  to  retire  to  his  estates,  his  daughter,  Perrin's  wife, 
once  more  defied  the  ecclesiastical  discipline  by  dancing, 
and  after  a  heated  interyiew  with  the  Consistory,  in 
which  she  insulted  Abel  Poupin  who  had  once  called 
her  father  a  dog,  she  was  ordered  imprisoned  on  June 
24th,  by  the  Little  Council, — a  punishment  which  she 
avoided  by  flight.  Three  days  later,  a  threatening  pla- 
card, aimed  primarily  at  Poupin,  but  including  the 
whole  body  of  ministers  in  its  declaration,  "When  too 
much  has  been  endured  revenge  is  taken,"  was  affixed 
to  the  pulpit  at  Saint-Pierre.  Suspicion  fell  at  once  on 
Jacques  Gruet,  who  had  breakfasted  that  morning  with 
Franfois  Favre.^  A  man  of  some  education,  inclined 
to  the  use  of  his  pen  for  his  private  amusement,  though 
not  thus  far  for  public  influence,  he  was  at  heart  a 
*' free-thinker"  in  the  modern  sense,  and  also  a  man  of 
sensual  standards  of  morality.  Arrested  at  once,  he 
admitted  the  authorship  of  the  placard  under  threat  of 
torture.  But  a  search  of  his  house  yielded  documents, 
to  the  thinking  of  the  time  of  even  more  incriminating 
nature.  Among  his  papers  were  drafts  of  an  appeal  to 
the  people  against  the  moral  discipline  of  the  com- 
munity, and  of  a  letter  proposing  that  the  King  of  France 
be  induced  to  attempt  the  removal  of  Cahdn  from  Ge- 
neva by  diplomatic  threats.  On  a  scrap  of  paper  were 
traced  the  words,  ''All  laws,  divine  and  human,  are 


^  For  Gruet  see  H.  Fazy,  Proces  de  J.  Gruet,  in  Memoire  de  I'lnst. 
not.  genevois,  for  1886,  i.  5-141;  Roget,  ii.  289-312;  Kampschulte, 
ii.  59-67;    Cornelius,  pp.  501-505;   also,  Opera,  xii.  563-568. 


1553]  Struggles  and  Conflicts  307 

made  by  the  caprice  of  men."  On  the  margin  of  a 
passage  in  which  Calvin  had  argued  the  truth  of  human 
immortality  he  had  written,  "All  nonsense."  These 
were  private  papers.  No  consequent  act,  save  the  pla- 
card, could  be  traced  to  him;  but  to  the  judges  they 
seemed  an  attack  on  the  majesty  of  God  no  less  than 
of  the  State.  The  severest  of  tortures,  however,  failed 
to  wring  from  Gruet  any  satisfactory  evidences  of  a  con- 
spiracy or  of  accomplices.  But  the  sixteenth  century 
had  only  one  opinion  of  the  deserts  of  such  an  offender.^ 
On  July  26th,  he  was  beheaded. 

Gruet  was  a  worthless  fellow.  The  real  danger  from 
him  was  slight  to  modern  thinking,  if  not  to  the  judg- 
ment of  that  age.  But  to  Calvin,  in  the  heat  of  a  diffi- 
cult struggle,  Gruet's  discovery  and  condemnation  was 
a  great  advantage.  He  felt  that  the  trial  moved  too 
slowly  and  rejoiced  in  its  result.^  Gruet,  though  denying 
that  he  had  had  accomplices,  and  himself  so  abhorrent 
to  the  conception  of  the  time  that  none  of  Calvin's 
enemies  would  say  a  word  in  his  defence,  nevertheless 
seemed  by  his  own  wickedness  to  prove  the  funda- 
mental viciousness  of  the  opposition  which  the  reformer 
had  encountered  and  to  justify  the  severity  of  Genevan 
discipline. 

Strong   as    Calvin   appeared    after   the   collapse   of 


1  Some  time  after  Gruet's  death,  a  draft  of  a  volume  was  found 
hidden  in  his  former  home  showing  his  hostility  to  the  Christian  re- 
ligion and  attacking  the  characters  of  Christ,  His  mother,  and  the 
Apostles.  Made  a  subject  of  judicial  inquiry  in  which  Calvin  bore 
a  part,  it  was  publicly  burned  on  May  23,  1550.  Henr}',  ii.,  Appendix, 
pp.  120-124;   Opera,  xiii.  566-572. 

2  Calvin's  letters,  Opera,  xii.  559,  576, 


3o8  John  Calvin  [1542- 

Perrin's  plans  and  the  death  of  Gruet,  before  the  end 
of  the  year  he  was  to  reach  almost  his  lowest  point  of 
power.  Perrin,  as  has  been  noted,  had  gone  in  June  to 
the  French  court  as  an  ambassador  of  Geneva.  The 
time  was  one  of  distress  for  the  Protestant  cause  brought 
low  in  Germany  by  the  successes  of  Charles  V.  Switzer- 
land feared  his  victorious  arms.  Under  these  cir- 
cumstances of  danger  from  Germany,  Perrin  made  or 
listened  to  a  suggestion  that  a  small  force  in  French  pay, 
but  under  his  command,  be  sent  to  Geneva  to  strengthen 
the  city  against  the  Emperor. '  The  arrangement  was 
not  concluded ;  but  the  advantages  of  such  a  force  to  an 
ambitious  party  leader  are  evident.  Before  Perrin 's 
return  the  plan  was  made  known,  however,  through  the 
correspondence  of  a  brilliant,  rather  spendthrift,  but 
able  French  refugee  resident  of  Geneva,  Laurent  Mai- 
gret,  nicknamed  Magnifique  from  his  style  of  living,  who 
had  always  maintained  close  relations  with  the  French 
court,  and  wdth  w^hom  partly  as  an  admiring  fellow- 
countryman  and  partly  as  a  possible  agent  for  advancing 
the  Evangelical  cause  in  France,  Calvin  stood  in  friendly 
relations.  Perrin's  home-coming,  in  September,  i547> 
was,  therefore,  sure  to  lead  to  questioning;  but  it  was 
aggravated  by  the  return  to  the  city  of  his  father-in-law 
and  his  wife,  Francois  and  Franchequine  Favre,  both 
of  whom  had  avoided  governmental  punishment  by 
flight.  They  were  now  arrested,  and  Perrin  having 
denounced  their  seizure  in  bitter  words,  was  joined  with 
them.     At  the  request  of  Bern,  with  which  canton  they 


^  For  this  whole  controversy  see  Roget,  iii.  1-39;   Kampschulte,  ii. 
70-100;    Cornelius,  pp.  505-1537. 


1553]  Struggles  and  Conflicts  309 

stood  on  good  terms,  the  P'avres  were  soon  released 
from  confinement,  and,  on  October  6th,  at  last  made 
their  peace  with  the  Consistory.  Not  so  Perrin. 
Though  aided  by  Bern,  his  trial  continued. 

Thus  far  all  had  gone  well  for  Calvin ;  but  a  change 
now  came.  The  Bernese  ambassador  denounced  Mai- 
gret  as  much  worse  than  Perrin,  as  a  constant  corre- 
spondent with  the  French  authorities,  a  dangerous 
intriguant  with  France  and  the  real  traitor.  The  result 
was  that  two  trials  went  on  side  by  side,  that  of  Calvin's 
opponent,  Perrin,  and  that  of  his  friend,  Maigret. 
Factional  feeling  was  excited  in  high  degree;  but  its 
most  interesting  exhibition  for  Calvin's  story  is  that  it 
gave  him  an  opportunity  to  display  a  physical  courage 
which  shows  how  completely  his  strength  of  spirit  could 
triumph  over  his  natural  timidity.  On  December  i6th, 
the  Two  Hundred  met.  The  scene  within  was  one  of 
violence,  and  the  crowd  in  the  street  outside  seemed  on 
the  point  of  battle.  Bern  and  France  had  their  friends 
and  foes  in  the  throng.  i\t  imminent  peril  of  his  life, 
and  against  protest,  warning,  and  threat,  Calvin  went 
to  the  hall,  at  the  head  of  the  Venerable  Compagnie,  and 
by  the  courage  of  his  personal  appearance  and  the  skill 
of  his  words  of  exhortation  brought  at  least  external 
good  order.  It  was  a  triumph  of  pluck  and  persuasive 
force.^  But  Cahdn  had  little  hope  either  of  Maigret's 
acquittal  or  of  his  own  continuance  in  the  city.     "I  am 


^  Even  Audin,  Histoire  de  la  vie,  des  ouvrages  et  des  doctrines  de 
Calvin,  i.  394,  praises  his  courage.  For  contemporary  accounts  see 
Opera,  xii.  632,  xxi.  418;  Cornelius,  p.  550;  see  also  Calvin's  Fare- 
well Address,  Opera,  ix.  892. 


3IO  John  Calvin  [1542- 

broken,"  he  wrote  to  Viret,  "unless  God  stretches  forth 
his  hand."  '  Yet  so  evenly  balanced  were  the  two 
parties  in  Geneva  that  the  result  was  compromise  and 
partial  reconciliation.  Perrin  and  Maigret  both  went 
free.  But  Perrin  gained  most.  He  was  restored  to 
all  his  rights  and  honours,  while  Maigret  remained  out 
of  office.  This  balance  of  parties  was  also  evident  in 
the  choice  of  syndics  at  the  election  of  February,  1548. 
By  the  Perrinists  and  the  friends  of  Calvin  the  board 
was  evenly  divided;  and  in  this  equality  of  power  lay 
Calvin's  danger  and  his  hope  alike. 

Cahdn's  story  during  the  next  two  or  three  years  is 
one  of  effort  to  hold  what  had  been  gained,  involving 
many  petty,  but  none  the  less  harassing  struggles  to 
maintain  Church-discipline.  By  the  lighter-minded  of 
his  opponents  Calvin  was  nicknamed  Cain,  dogs  were 
named  in  derision  for  him,  placards  were  posted  criti- 
cising him,  ballads  ridiculing  him  were  sung;  he  was 
exposed  to  all  the  annoyances  of  petty  attack.  When 
discovered,  the  authors  of  these  insults  were  disciplined 
by  the  Consistory,  and  reported  to  the  magistrates ;  but 
they  rendered  his  life  uncomfortable,  and  increased  the 
sense  of  danger  which  was  his  constant  companion. 

The  ablest  leader  among  Calvin's  opponents  was 
undoubtedly  Ami  Perrin,  of  whom  frequent  mention  has 
been  made.  Self-centred,  ambitious,  vdthout  deep  prin- 
ciples of  any  sort,  he  was  yet  an  effective  party  leader, 
and  proved  himself,  when  in  office,  possessed  of  con- 
siderable gifts  as  a  magistrate.  His  chief  supporter  was 
Pierre  Vandel,  forward  in  the  original   estabUshment 

*  Opera,  xii.  633. 


15530  Struggles  and  Conflicts  311 

of  the  Reformation  in  Geneva,  but  hostile  to  Calvin, 
as  has  been  seen,  even  before  the  close  of  his  stormy 
first  ministry  in  the  city.  Vandel  represented  well  the 
old  Genevan  spirit  of  independence;  but  his  own  dis- 
position was  such  as  to  make  any  discipline  irksome. 
Much  inferior  in  intellectual  gifts  and  in  political  talents, 
but  popular,  bold,  eager  for  conflict  with  foreign  in- 
fluences, as  well  as  hostile  to  any  form  of  restraint,  were 
the  two  sons  of  the  Genevan  patriot-martyr  of  1519, 
Philibert  and  Francois  Daniel  Berthelier,  of  whom  the 
first-named,  in  spite  of  his  weaknesses,  deserves  to  rank 
with  Perrin  and  Vandel  as  a  leader  of  the  forces  of 
opposition  to  Calvin.  Among  the  common  people 
Philibert  Berthelier  enjoyed  the  largest  popularity. 
To  him,  chiefly,  appears  to  have  been  due  the  renewal  in 
1546  or  1547,  of  the  ''Enfants  de  Geneve," — an  ancient 
association  of  young  men  professedly  for  the  military 
defence  of  Geneva,  the  title  of  which  recalled  the  pa- 
triots of  his  father's  time.  Berthelier's  own  character 
was  wTak,  immoral,  and  ungoverned;  and  his  temper 
and  excesses  rendered  him  an  ally  of  doubtful  perma- 
nent value  to  any  cause.  That  it  was  compelled  to  use 
such  instruments  as  the  best  available  reveals  the  fun- 
damental inefficiency  of  the  opposition  to  Calvin.  It 
could  in  no  way  equal  his  determination,  his  intellectual 
strength,  and  least  of  all  his  character. 

Yet  this  opposition  was  formidable  enough,  in  spite 
of  its  weaknesses.  In  January,  1 548,  Berthelier  began 
a  defiance  of  the  Consistory,  which  was  to  continue,  in 
varying  forms,  for  years.  It  was  to  bring  before  the 
Little  Council,  in  1551,  the  much  vexed  question  of 


312 


John  Calvin  [1542- 


consistorial  right  to  pronounce  excommunication;'  and 
to  lead,  in  1553,  as  there  will  be  occasion  to  point  out, 
to  a  most  serious  effort  to  do  away  with  consistorial 
independence.  Calvin's  situation  was  continually  har- 
assed. In  May,  1548,  he  was  admonished  by  the  Little 
Council  for  criticisms  passed  upon  the  magistrates,  in  a 
sermon.^  The  following  September  one  of  his  free- 
written  letters  to  his  friend  Viret  fell  into  governmental 
hands,  and  caused  him  much  difficult  explanation  by 
reason  of  its  criticisms  of  the  Genevan  situation.^  The 
elections  of  February,  1 549,  saw  Ami  Perrin  made  first 
syndic,  and  were  immediately  followed  by  a  struggle 
for  the  removal  of  de  I'Eglise  and  Ferron  from  the  pas- 
toral offices  of  which  Calvin  and  the  majority  of  their 
associates  deemed  them  on  good  grounds  unworthy. 
In  spite  of  Calvin's  conviction  that  de  I'Eglise  should  be 
dismissed,  he  remained  in  office  under  the  protection  of 
the  Little  Council.  While  these  events  were  in  progress, 
Calvin  passed  through  the  bitter  personal  affliction 
caused  by  the  death,  on  March  29th,  of  his  wife.^  His 
own  health  was  precarious.  His  old  enemy,  the  severe 
nervous  headaches  from  which  he  had  long  suffered, 
distressed  him.  The  outbreak  of  persecutions  in  France 
and  the  apparent  collapse  of  the  defeated  Protestant 
cause  in  Germany,  crushed  by  the  victories  of  Charles 
v.,  wore  upon  him.s  His  situation  was  painful  in 
almost  every  aspect. 

1  Opera,  xxi.  419,  473-479;   Roget,  iii.  44,  145-148. 

2  Registres  du  Conseil,  xliii.  94;   Opera,  xxi.  426. 

3  Ibid.,  xliii.  194;   xxi.  434;   Roget,  iii.  63-67. 

4  See  anie,  p.  237. 

5  Compare  Kampschulte,  ii.  114,  115. 


1553]  Struggles  and  Conflicts  313 

One  feature  of  the  situation  was,  however,  full  of 
promise  and  of  menace  alike.  From  the  beginning  of 
Calvin's  ministry  he  had  welcomed  refugees  for  their 
faith.  He  had  encouraged  them  to  come  by  exhortation 
and  by  letter.  His  ideal,  as  he  assured  the  Genevan 
authorities  a  little  later,  was  "that  your  city  may  be  a 
firm  sanctuary  for  God  amid  these  horrible  commo- 
tions, and  a  faithful  asylum  for  the  members  of  Christ."  ' 
It  was  far  more  than  local  policy  that  dictated  this 
resolution.  Calvin  would  make,  and  in  the  end  did 
make,  of  Geneva  the  bulwark  of  the  Protestant  cause  in 
his  native  France,  and  in  less  degree  in  Italy,  the 
Netherlands,  Scotland,  and  England,  by  the  cordial 
reception  and  generous  aid  there  afforded  to  exiles  from 
those  lands.  It  was  this  that  was  to  make  of  Geneva 
a  training  school  for  the  reformation  of  western  Europe. 
But  while  the  purpose  of  Calvin  was  thus  far-reaching, 
the  effect  of  this  welcome  extended  to  refugees  was  in 
the  highest  degree  beneficial  to  his  ultimate  position  in 
Geneva,  since  they  were  prevailingly  men  of  religious 
principle,  and  very  generally  filled  with  admiration  for 
his  theology  and  discipline.  The  menace  of  the  situa- 
tion was,  however,  that  the  coming  of  these  exiles 
aroused  the  natural  jealousy  of  the  older  inhabitants, 
and  more  than  any  other  single  cause  fed  the  fires  of 
opposition  to  Calvin's  rule.  It  was  to  this  feeling, 
more  than  to  any  other,  that  Perrin,  Vandel,  and 
Berthelier  could  make  successful  appeal.  Calvin's 
time  of  chief  peril  was  that  between  the  reahsation  that 


^Prefatory  letter  of  1552  to  Calvin's  De  aeterna  Dei  Praedestina- 
tione,  Opera,  viii.  256. 


314  John  Calvin  [1542- 

the  refugees  were  a  serious  menace  to  the  older  forces  of 
Geneva  and  their  attainment  of  such  strength  as  to 
constitute  an  efficient  basis  of  his  control  of  the  city. 

The  accession  of  Henry  II.  to  the  French  throne  was 
soon  followed  by  severe  persecution.  By  1549,  French 
refugees,  in  numbers  and  rank  such  as  had  not  pre- 
\iously  made  their  way  to  Switzerland,  were  streaming 
to  Geneva.  Besides  the  many  whose  sojourn  was  tem- 
porary, seventy-two  received  permission  to  become 
inhabitants  of  the  city  in  1549,  and  one  hundred  and 
twenty-two  in  1550.  By  1554,  no  less  than  1376  had 
obtained  the  right  of  residence.  Among  those  who 
came  to  Geneva  between  1548  and  1550,  wxre  such  men 
as  Laurent  de  Normandie,  a  royal  officer  of  Noyon; 
Theodore  Beza,  to  be  Cahin's  successor;  Guillaume 
Trie,  a  wealthy  merchant  of  Lyons;  the  Colladon 
family,  eminent  in  Berry;  and  Robert  Estienne,  the 
celebrated  Parisian  printer.  Not  only  did  they  en- 
counter much  popular  ill-will;  but  the  Little  Council, 
though  granting  rights  of  residence,  was  very  chary  in 
admissions  to  the  bourgeoisie  with  its  privilege  of  a  vote 
in  municipal  affairs.  This  feeling  resulted,  in  January, 
1 551,  in  a  proposal  by  the  Little  Council  that  the  new- 
comers should  not  be  eligible  to  vote  in  any  Council 
till  after  a  residence  of  twenty-five  years. ^  No  law  to 
that  effect  was  enacted;  but  the  attempt  reveals  the 
fear  with  which  these  new  inhabitants  w^re  viev/ed  by 
the  party  which  had  Perrin,  Vandel,  and  Berthelier  as 
its  chief  representatives. 

Yet  it  was  from  one  of  these  refugees  that  a  greater 

^  Rogct,  iii.  136. 


1553]  Struggles  and  Conflicts  315 

danger  was  to  come  to  Calvin,  in  1 551,  than  the  Genevan 
opponents,  just  mentioned,  could  alone  have  aroused. 
Jerome  Hermfes  Bolsec,'  the  source  of  this  attack,  was  a 
former  Carmelite  monk  of  Paris,  who,  fleeing  from  the 
repressive  action  of  the  French  government,  had  found 
a  brief  refuge  at  the  court  of  Ren^e  in  Ferrara,  and  then, 
in  1550,  a  home  at  Veigy,  a  village  near  Geneva  but 
under  Bernese  jurisdiction,  where  he  served  as  physician 
to  a  refugee  Protestant  nobleman,  Jacques  de  Bour- 
gogne,  Sieur  of  Falais,  with  whom  Calvin  had  long  been 
on  terms  of  intimacy.  A  man  of  education,  eminence 
in  his  new  profession,  and,  as  far  as  had  yet  appeared, 
of  character,  he  soon  won  much  respect  in  the  Genevan 
community.  Interested  in  theological  questions,  he 
frequently  attended  the  Congregation,  or  public  dis- 
cussion, which  the  Venerable  Compagnie  held  each  Fri- 
day. In  the  main  he  found  himself  in  hearty  accord 
with  Calvin's  theology;  but  on  the  doctrine  of  pre- 
destination he  was  in  sharp  disagreement.  To  his 
thinking,  absolute  predestination  made  God  a  tyrant; 
and  was  contrary  to  the  Scripture  representation  that 
man's  acceptance  or  rejection  with  God  depends  on 
the  presence  or  absence  of  faith.  These  criticisms  he 
had  expressed  in  the  Congregation,  in  one  instance  on 
May  15,  1 551;    and  before  the  ministers  gathered  in 


^  The  documents  in  the  Bolsec  affair  may  be  found  in  the  Opera, 
viii.  141-248;  contemporary  letters  and  extracts  from  registers  in 
Ibid.,  xiv.  191-291;  XV.  252,  320,  362;  xxi.  481,  489-505;  see  also 
H.  Fazy,  Proces  de  Bolsec,  in  Memoires  de  VInst.  nat.  ge^ievois,  x.  1-74 
(1866);  Kampschulte,  ii.  125-150;  Roget,  iii.  156-206;  Choisy,  pp. 
1 13-120,  and  in  Hauck's  Realencyklopddie,    iii.  281. 


2i5  John  Calvin  [1542- 

Calvin's  house.  On  October  i6th,  of  the  same 
year,  he  proceeded  to  a  much  more  \iolent  attack 
on  the  Genevan  reformer,  declaring  to  the  Congrega- 
tion that  Calvin's  views  were  not  merely  erroneous 
and  absurd,  but  that  Calvin  was  not  a  true  inter- 
preter of  Scripture  or  of  the  historic  teaching  of  the 
Church. 

Here  was  a  criticism  that  struck  at  the  basis  of 
Calvin's  whole  Genevan  position.  As  has  been  pointed 
out  in  speaking  of  Castellio,  Calvin  had  no  other  post 
in  the  city  than  that  of  an  interpreter  of  the  Word  of 
God,  as  pastor  and  teacher,  and  if  he  was,  as  Bolsec 
asserted,  a  false  interpreter,  all  real  claim  to  authority 
was  swept  away.  Calvin  had  left  no  room  for  the  ad- 
mission of  possible  mistake  on  important  doctrines. 
He  must  be  right  in  all  that  was  vital,  or  he  must  stand 
thoroughly  discredited, — a  false  teacher.  And  Bolsec's 
attack  involved  much  more  than  a  deadly  thrust  at  his 
Genevan  position,  to  Calvin's  thinking.  It  was  the 
rejection  not  merely  of  what  seemed  to  Calvin,  however 
it  may  appear  to  the  modern  world,  a  plain  teaching 
of  Scripture,  but  of  a  doctrine  of  special  comfort  to  the 
Christian  life.  In  that  light  Calvin  always  viewed  the 
dognm  of  predestination.  Granted,  as  he  held,  that 
human  nature  is  wholly  bad,  and  of  itself  incapable  of 
goodness,  what  assurance  has  any  man  of  salvation 
save  in  the  Divine  purpose  to  rescue  him  by  all-powerful, 
transforming  might  from  his  sins?  Nothing  but  the 
will  of  God,  Calvin  thought,  gave  any  man  rational 
ground  for  hope  of  salvation;  but  if  one  had  reason  to 
feel  that  God's  will  was  manifested  in  grace,  one  had  a 


1553]  Struggles  and  Conllicts  317 

confidence  of  Divine  favour  and  ultimate  complete 
redemption  such  as  nothing  else  could  bestow.  An 
attack  upon  a  doctrine  so  important  in  itself,  and  so 
bound  up  with  Calvin's  own  credit  as  a  religious  teacher, 
demanded  his  most  strenuous  resistance.  While  Bolsec 
might  be  the  agent,  the  real  author  of  the  criticism,  in 
Calvin's  judgment,  was  Satan  himself.' 

Holding  such  views,  Calvin  not  merely  replied  to 
Bolsec  at  length  and  with  vehemence  in  the  Congrega- 
tion; aided  by  his  clerical  associates,  he  caused  the 
matter  to  be  laid  at  once  before  the  civil  authorities  of 
Geneva.  It  became  immediately  a  legal  trial  involving 
the  truth  or  falsity  of  his  own  doctrinal  teaching. 
Bolsec  was  promptly  arrested,  and  defended  himself 
with  no  little  skill;  but  he  was  a  foreigner  and  as  such 
had  slight  support  even  among  Calvin's  opponents.* 
Repeated  hearings  failed  to  shake  his  constancy,  and 
a  two  days'  discussion  before  the  authorities  in  the 
City  Hall  being  equally  fruitless,  the  Little  Council  so 
far  complied  with  Bolsec's  requests  as  to  agree  that  the 
opinion  of  neighbouring  churches  should  be  sought  on 
the  question  at  issue.  This  was,  indeed,  something  of  a 
defeat  for  Calvin,  implying,  as  it  did,  that  his  views 
on  predestination  were  debatable;  and  the  ministers 
under  his  lead  met  it  by  laying  further  accusations 
against  Bolsec.  In  spite  of  his  protests,  and  those  of 
the  Sieur  de  Falais,  he  was  still  kept  in  prison,  and 


1  Opera,  viii.  254. 

2  Roget,  iii.  158,  and  Choisy,  p.  1 13,  regard  Bolsec  as  acting  at 
the  instance  of  Calvin's  adversaries.  Kampschulte,  ii.  129,  views 
his  attack,  probably  rightly,  as  due  simply  to  Bolsec's  own  liking 
for  theologic  discussion. 


3i8  John  Calvin  [1542- 

began  to  be  seriously  distressed  as  to  the  probable  out- 
come of  his  trial.  The  Genevan  ministers,  with  Calvin 
at  their  head,  now  anticipated  the  action  of  the  govern- 
ment by  sending  letters  strongly  denunciatory  of  Bolsec, 
on  November  14th,  to  their  colleagues  of  Basel,  Bern, 
and  Zurich.  The  official  letter  of  the  syndics  and  Little 
Council  went  out  a  week  later.  Before  the  answers 
could  be  received,  a  piece  of  verse  written  by  Bolsec  in 
his  prison  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  authorities,  and  led 
to  a  painful  examination  as  to  the  criticisms  of  his 
treatment  that  might  be  drawn  from  its  several  couplets. 
The  whole  course  of  the  trial,  both  on  the  part  of  the 
ministers  and  of  the  magistrates,  gives  an  impression  of 
pressure  and  unseemly  severity. 

To  Calvin,  the  letters  which  at  length  came  from  the 
friendly  Smss  churches  were  exceedingly  disappointing.' 
That  of  Basel  viewed  Bolsec  as  heretical,  but  its  writers 
affirmed  that  they  treated  this  ''most  intricate  question" 
of  predestination  with  "simplicity,"  laying  stress  neither 
on  foreknowledge  nor  on  election,  but  on  faith.  It  was 
evident  that  predestination  held  no  such  place  in  the 
teachings  at  Basel  as  it  did  at  Geneva.  That  of  Zurich 
regretted  the  strife,  but  thought  both  sides  too  bitter  in 
controversy.  It  treated  the  question  at  issue  only  in 
the  most  untechnical  and  general  fashion.  That  of 
Bern  went  further,  its  writers  declaring  that  they  had 
heard  that  Bolsec  was  "not  a  very  bad  man,"  that  his 
principles,  even  on  the  point  in  debate,  had  in  them 
much  that  might  serve  as  a  basis  of  reconciUation,  that 


^  See  his  letter  of  December,  155 1,  to  the  ministers  of  Neuchatel, 
Opera,  xiv.  213,  218. 


1553]  Struggles  and  Conflicts  319 

the  question  of  predestination  was  one  of  difficulty  for 
many  excellent  men,  and  that  moderation  in  such  dis- 
putes was  desirable.  On  the  other  hand,  the  pastors  of 
Neuchatcl,  led  by  Farel,  though  not  asked,  volunteered 
an  opinion  in  which  Bolsec  was  denounced  as  wholly 
profane,  an  instrument  of  Satan,  and  in  no  way  to  Ijc 
endured/  The  effect  of  the  letters  from  Basel,  Zurich, 
and  Bern  was  not  what  Calvin  wished.  He  protested 
to  the  Little  Council,  on  December  14th,  against  show- 
ing them  to  Bolsec;  but  in  vain.  It  was  evident  that 
the  Genevan  ministry  must  fight  its  own  battle  unaided, 
and  in  the  Congregation  of  December  i8th,  led  by  Cal- 
vin, the  pastors  proceeded  to  a  long  declaration  setting 
forth  the  fundamental  importance  of  right  views  on 
predestination.^  This  determined  action  on  the  part 
of  the  ministers  evidently  decided  the  magistrates  to 
end  the  already  long  trial.  On  December  23,  1551, 
Bolsec  was  for  ever  banished  for  "false  opinions,  con- 
trary to  the  holy  Scriptures,  and  pure  Evangelical 
religion." 

Calvin  had  won  a  victory.  His  critic  had  been  exiled. 
His  doctrine  had  been  declared,  by  implication,  ''pure" 
by  the  Genevan  government,  then  largely  in  the  hands 
of  his  opponents ;  but  the  cost  was  great.  The  struggle 
had  been  won  at  the  expense  of  an  insistence  on  pre- 
destination as  a  fundamental  Christian  doctrine  with 
which,  it  was  evident,  German-speaking  Switzerland 
was  far  from  sympathising.  His  position  as  an  un- 
assailable interpreter  of  the  Word  of  God  was  really 


1  Roget,  iii.  193-195. 

2  In  full  in  Opera,  viii.  93-138;   see  Colladon's  Life,  Ibid.,  xxi.  75. 


320 


John  Calvin  [1542- 


more  vulnerable  than  it  had  been  before, — though  for 
the  time  being  apparently  strengthened.  The  con- 
troversy had  undoubtedly  been  carried  on  with  un- 
necessary bitterness.  The  gain  that  it  had  brought 
was  temporary,  rather  than  decisive. 

As  for  Bolsec  himself,  his  later  conduct  was  such  as 
to  deprive  him  of  much  claim  to  sympathy.  Protected 
for  a  while  in  Bernese  territory,  whence  he  continued  to 
attack  Calvin,  he  was  driven  thence,  in  1555,  chiefly 
through  Calvin's  efforts.  Returning  to  France,  he 
recanted  what  he  then  styled  his  errors  at  the  National 
Synod  at  Orleans  in  1562.  A  year  later  he  was  de- 
posed from  the  French  Protestant  ministry  as  an 
"apostate."  Ultimately  he  returned  to  the  Roman 
communion,  and  in  1577,  when  Calvin  had  been  thirteen 
years  dead,  revenged  himself  on  Calvin's  memory  by  a 
biography  of  the  Genevan  reformer  filled  with  the 
grossest  calumnies  and  with  ascriptions  of  moral  tur- 
pitude, a  peculiarly  atrocious  instance  of  which  has 
already  been  discussed.' 

With  the  exile  of  Bolsec  the  troubles  aroused  by  the 
debate  regarding  predestination  were  by  no  means 
ended.  The  controversy,  which  at  first  excited  little 
interest  among  Calvin's  native  Genevan  opponents, 
was  gradually  seen  by  them  to  afford  a  new  ground  of 
attack, — not  now  upon  his  discipline  but  upon  his 
orthodoxy.  Such  a  charge  was  pressed  in  June,  1552, 
by  Jean  Trolliet,  a  former  monk,  whose  reception  as 
pastor  had  been  much  desired,  in  1545,  by  many  of  his 
fellow- Genevans;    but   whose   ambitions,   being   then 

^  Ante,  p.  117. 


1553]  Struggles  and  Conflicts  321 

defeated  by  Calvin,  had  led  him  to  cherish  a  grudge 
against  the  reformer.  TroUiet  had  become  a  lawyer, 
and  had  attached  himself  to  the  Perrinist  party.  He 
now  affirmed  that  Calvin's  Institutes  were  heretical, 
since  the  logical  consequence  of  their  teaching  regard- 
ing predestination  must  be  that  God  is  the  author  of 
sin.  Calvin  complained  to  the  Little  Council,  and  both 
sides  were  heard.'  Trolliet  had  many  friends,  and  the 
result  was  undecided.  On  August  29th,  Calvin,  there- 
fore, appeared  before  the  Little  Council  once  more  and 
demanded  that  justice  be  done  him  under  threat  of 
resigning  his  ministry.  At  the  hearing  which  followed 
Trolliet  defended  himself  by  an  appeal  to  the  well- 
known  views  of  Melanchthon.  Finally,  on  November 
9th,  the  Little  Council  voted  that  the  Institutes  present 
"the  holy  doctrine  of  God"  and  that  "in  future  no  one 
should  dare  to  speak  against  that  book  or  that  doctrine," 
a  judgment  in  which  Trolliet  thought  it  prudent  to 
acquiesce;  but  all  satisfaction  which  Calvin  may  have 
felt  in  this  decision  was  dampened  by  the  further  vote  of 
the  same  body,  on  the  15th,  assenting  to  Trolliet's 
request  that  it  declare  him,  officially,  to  be  "a  good 
man  and  a  good  cidzen."  The  balance  of  forces  in  the 
government  was  undoubtedly  the  cause  of  this  indeci- 
sive result. 

Such  a  state  of  affairs  could  not  continue  indefinitely, 
and  the  situation  was  constantly  complicated  and  im- 
bittered  by  hostility  aroused  by  the  growing  numbers 
and  influence  of  the  refugees.     The  inefficiency  of  the 

^  Opera,  xxi.  510-527;  Roget,  iii.  235-248;  Kampschulte,  ii.  i^- 
157;    Choisy,  pp.  121-126. 


322 


John  Calvin  [1542- 


government,  in  1552,  was  pleasing  to  neither  party. 
But  the  situation,  as  far  as  Calvin  was  concerned,  grew 
rapidly  worse  with  the  opening  of  1 553.     The  February 
elections    resulted    in    a    sweeping    Perrinist    victory. 
Not  only  did  Perrin  himself  once  more  become  a  syndic, 
but  he  could  now  count  on  fourteen  votes  in  the  Little 
Council.     The  balance  of  parties, which  had  continued 
since  1547,  was  now  broken  in  favour  of  Calvin's  op- 
ponents.    The  consequences  were  speedily  apparent. 
On  March  i6th,  those  ministers  who,  as  burghers,  had 
voted  in  the  General  Assembly  were  deprived  of  this 
small  share  in  city  politics  while  in  office,  in  spite  of 
Calvin's  protest.     The  Little  Council  asserted  increased 
authority  in  the  examination  of  ministerial  candidates. 
The   right   of  the   Consistory  to  excommunicate   was 
once  more  brought  into  dispute.     It  was  a  time  of  an- 
noyance and  of  petty  attack  not  merely  for  Calvin,  but 
for  the  whole  ministerial  body.     Yet  more  positive  were 
the  measures  taken  by  the  Perrinist  government  against 
Calvin's  friends,  the  refugees.     Moved  in  part  by  fears 
of  French  plots  suggested  by  Bern,  but  largely  by  their 
own  hostility,  the  authorities  ordered  in  April  that  all 
not  burghers  be  deprived  of  arms,  save  swords  only,  and 
that  these  were  not  to  be  carried  in  the  streets.     None 
of  the  non-citizen  refugees  should  share  in  the  city 
watch.'     These  regulations  increased  in  marked  degree 
the  ill-feeling  between  the  older  and  the  newer  inhabi- 
tants of  Geneva  which  so  largely  underlay  the  divisions 
of  its  parties ;  and  they  made  Calvin's  position  yet  more 
difficult.     By  the  summer  of  1553,  it  seemed  as  if  his 


^  Roget,  iii.  287-290 


1553]  Struggles  and  Conflicts  323 

fall  and  the  collapse  of  his  Genevan  system  could  be 
but  little  delayed. 

Through  these  years  of  struggle  and  anxiety  Calvin 
had  been  busy  with  his  preaching,  his  teaching,  and 
his  pen.  A  succession  of  writings,  large  and  small,  in 
addition  to  an  enormous  correspondence,  flowed  from 
his  study.  Beside  careful  revision  of  the  Institutes  in 
1543  and  1550,  the  more  important  writings  of  Calvin 
during  this  period  include  his  Traicte  des  Reliques  of 
1543,  perhaps  the  keenest  and  most  bitingly  satirical 
criticism  on  this  feature  of  the  older  worship  that  the 
Reformation  age  produced. "^  His  treatise  against  the 
Lihertins  of  1 545  has  already  been  noted. ^^  The  Roman 
Council  of  Trent  drew  from  him  a  vigorous  Antidote 
in  1 547 ;  3  and  the  Interim,  by  which  the  victorious 
Charles  V.  sought  to  regulate  the  Protestant  churches 
of  Germany  pending  their  expected  reconciliation  with 
the  papacy,  encountered  his  earnest  protest  in  1549.'* 
The  next  year  came  Calvin's  treatise  on  those  offences 
due  to  quarrels  among  Protestants,  the  unworthy  lives 
of  some  who  professed  the  Evangelical  faith,  and  other 
hindrances  by  which  many  were  turned  away  from  the 
Reformed  cause.^  The  doctrine  of  predestination  drew 
from  him  elaborate  arguments  in  1543,  1550,  and  1552.^ 

^  Opera,  vi.  405-452.     Eng.  tr.  by  Beveridge,  in  Calvin's  Tracts, 

i-  255730^- 

2  Ante,  p.  294. 

3  Acta  Synodi  Tridentinae  cum  Antidoto,  Opera,  vii.  365-506. 

4  Interim  adultero-germanum,  Ibid.,  vii.  545-674. 
s  De  Scandalis,  Ibid.,  viii.  1-84. 

^  Defensio  doctrinae  de  servitute  arhitrii  contra  PigJiium,  Ibid.,  vi. 
225-404;  De  praedestinatione  et  providentia  Dei,  Ibid.,  i.  861-902; 
De  aeterna  Dei  praedestinatione,  Ibid.,  viii.  249-366. 


324 


John  Calvin  [1542-1553] 


A  series  of  significant  commentaries  on  the  Scripture, 
of  the  general  character  of  which  there  will  be  some- 
thing said  on  a  later  page,  opened  with  his  exposition 
of  Romans,  in  1540,  while  at  Strassburg,  and  was 
rapidly  continued  at  Geneva.  In  1546  and  1547,  he 
discussed  I.  and  II.  Corinthians;  Galatians,  Ephesians, 
Philippians,  Colossians,  I.  and  II.  Timothy,  were  ex- 
plained in  1 548 ;  the  next  year  Titus  and  Hebrews  were 
added  to  the  list;  in  1550  came  his  commentaries  on 
the  epistles  to  the  Thessalonians,  and  James;  I.  and 
II.  Peter,  and  Jude  followed  in  1551;  then  Acts  and 
Isaiah  were  expounded;  and  the  Gospel  according 
to  John  was  discussed  in  1553.  In  these  tracts  and 
commentaries,  Calvin  made  firmer  and  broader  his 
claim,  already  established  by  the  Institutes^  to  a  position 
in  the  first  rank  of  theologians  not  merely  of  his  own 
age,  but  of  the  universal  Church. 


CHAPTER   XII 

THE  TRAGEDY  OF  SERVETUS. — CALVIN'S  VICTORY  OVER 

HIS  OPPONENTS,  1 553-1557 

CALVIN'S  position  in  the  summer  of  1553  was,  as 
has  been  seen,  almost  desperate  in  its  prospects. 
Famed  as  a  theologian,  revered  as  the  real  head  of 
French  Protestantism,  his  hold  on  Geneva  seemed 
slipping.  His  disciplinary  system  met  with  constant, 
though  often  petty,  resistance.  His  friends,  the  refu- 
gees, aroused  jealousy.  It  seemed  probable  that  the 
next  election,  at  the  latest,  might  secure  such  a  com- 
bination of  the  elements  of  opposition  as  would  drive 
him  from  the  city,  as  in  1538.  From  this  situation  he 
was  saved,  and  was  placed  on  the  sure  path  to  ultimate 
victory,  by  the  unexpected  coming  to  Geneva  of  one 
w^ho  was  deemed  an  arch-heretic,  Michael  Servetus, 
whose  martyrdom  constitutes  the  most  discussed  epi- 
sode of  the  Reformation  age.  As  in  the  case  of  Ameaux, 
the  identification  of  Calvin's  opponents,  in  part,  with 
the  interests  of  one  whom  public  sentiment  condemned, 
gave  renewed  strength  to  his  position,  and  seemed  to 
the  common  man  a  proof  of  the  identity  of  his  cause 
with  that  of  righteousness.  To  understand  the  case  of 
Servetus  and  its  effects  on  Calvin's  fortunes,  as  well  as 
Calvin's  attitude  toward  it,  one  must  so  far  as  possible 
divest  one's  self  of  the  prejudgments  which  three  cen- 
turies and  a  half  of  progress  in  religious  freedom  since 

[325] 


326  John  Calvin  [1553- 

that  time  have  engendered  and  try  to  look  upon  it 
from  the  common  view-point  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
The  gravest  injustice  to  Calvin's  memory  would  be  to 
minimise  his  share  in  a  tragedy,  which,  however  repug- 
nant to  modern  thinking,  was  to  him  the  exercise  of  a 
conscientious  duty  to  the  Church,  and  a  means  of 
triumph,  at  the  same  time,  over  his  enemies. 

Miguel  Serveto '  was  almost  certainly  born  in  Villa- 
neuva  in  the  old  Spanish  kingdom  of  Aragon  in  1509 
or  1 51 1.  He  was,  therefore,  about  the  same  age  as 
Calvin.  He  may  have  studied  law  at  Toulouse,  but 
his  early  life  is  very  uncertain."  In  1530,  however,  he 
was  in  Basel,  and  there  met  (Ecolampadius ;  thence  he 
went  to  Strassburg,  where  he  was  kindly  received  by 
Capito.  This  favour  was  abruptly  ended  when  he  pub- 
lished, at  Hagenau  in  153 1,  his  De  Trinitatis  Erroribus. 
This  radical  work,  of  a  man  but  little,  if  at  all,  over 
twenty  years  of  age,  anticipated  much  not  only  of  what 

I  The  documents  relating  to  his  trials  are  given  in  Opera,  viii.  721- 
856;  his  letters  to  Calvin,  Ibid.,  645-720;  Calvin's  critical  account 
of  him  and  his  "errors,"  the  Defensio  Orthodoxae  Fidei,  of  1554,  is 
in  Ibid.,  453-644.  The  contemporary  letters  of  Calvin  and  his  friends 
may  be  found  in  Opera,  viii.  857-872;  xii.  283;  xiv.  480,  510,  589- 
709.  For  Colladon  and  Beza's  accounts  see  Ibid.,  xxi.  57,  76,  146. 
The  literature  is  voluminous.  To  be  mentioned  are,  L.  Mosheim, 
Geschichte  des  berUhmten  spanischen  Arztes  Michael  Serveto,  1748; 
F.  Treschel,  Michael  Servet,  1839;  H.  Tollin,  Characterbild  Michael 
Servets,  u.  das  Lehrsystem  Michael  Servets,  1876-78;  R.  Willis, 
Servetus  and  Calvin,  1877;  see  also  Henry,  iii.  95-223;  T.  H.  Dyer, 
Life  of  John  Calvin,  pp.  296-367;  Schaff,  Hist,  of  the  Christian 
Church,  vii.  681-798;  Roget,  iv.  1-131;  Kampschulte,  ii.  167-203; 
Harnack,  Dogmengeschichte,  iii.  661-698;  Choisy,  pp.  130-15 1; 
The  Cambridge  Modern  History,  ii.  411. 

'  Servetus' s  own  statements  were  conflicting, 


1557]         The  Tragedy  of  Servetus  327 

Socinianism  afterwards  asserted,  but  some  Christo- 
logical  views  which  now  have  wide  currency.  To 
Protestants  and  Catholics  alike,  in  that  day,  however, 
he  seemed  an  extreme  heretic,  and  he  was,  indeed,  a 
radical  of  radicals.  Of  great  speculative  gifts,  and 
high  talents,  he  was  undoubtedly  a  man  of  genius.  His 
judgment  was  erratic,  however;  and  his  controversial 
manner  was  notoriously  overbearing  and  contemptuous 
of  opponents,  even  in  that  age  of  scanty  regard  for 
the  courtesies  of  debate;  but  there  can  be  no  question 
that  he  sincerely  believed  that  he  had  a  mission  of 
the  highest  importance  as  a  reformer  of  historic 
theology. 

Compelled  to  conceal  his  identity,  he  became  a  stu- 
dent of  medicine  and  natural  sciences  in  Paris  under 
the  name  of  Villeneuve.  Here  he  met  Calvin,  who 
strongly  disapproved  his  views,  and,  it  is  said,  sought 
an  opportunity  to  refute  them  in  a  discussion  before 
witnesses  which  Servetus  doubtless  deemed  too  perilous.^ 
He  next  appears  as  a  corrector  of  proofs  in  the  publish- 
ing office  of  Melchior  and  Gaspard  Trechsel  at  Lyons, 
where  he  edited,  in  1535,  a  most  creditable  edition  of 
Ptolemy's  Geography.  But  he  was  soon  back  in  Paris, 
and  threw  himself  with  passionate  zeal  into  the  medical 
controversies  of  the  day,  winning  many  enemies  thereby. 
His  own  keenly  observant  mind  is  revealed,  however,  in 
his  discovery,  three-quarters  of  a  century  before  William 
Harvey,  of  the  pulmonary  circulation  of  the  blood. ^ 


^Colladon,  in  Opera,  xxi.  57. 

^  Christianismi  Restitutio,  p.   169;    it  is  translated  and  criticised 
by  Willis,  himself  a  physician,  pp.  205-213. 


328  John  Calvin  [1553- 

After  brief  sojourns  in  Avignon,  Lyons,  and  Charlieu, 
Servetus  settled,  about  1540,  as  a  physician  at 
Vienne,  still  under  the  name  of  Villeneuve,  and  there 
won  the  goodwill  of  men  of  learning,  especially  of  the 
clergy,  and  developed  a  large  practice.  Here  he  la- 
boured in  secret  on  a  new  volume  which  he  was  to  pub- 
lish, early  in  1553,  as  the  Restitution  0}  Christianity,^ 
probably  completing  the  manuscript  in  1546.  Servetus 
believed  that  he  was  bringing  Christianity  back  to  its 
pristine  simplicity.  On  the  basis  of  an  essentially  pan- 
theistic view  of  God,  he  taught  that  Christ  was  truly 
the  Son  of  God,  that  all  the  Godhead  was  corporeally 
manifested  in  Him,  but  that  His  personality  was  not 
pre-existent,  save  in  the  mind  of  God,  and  really  began 
with  His  earthly  conception  and  birth.  To  Servetus's 
thinking,  the  Nicene  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,— "a  sort 
of  three-headed  Cerberus,"— the  Chalcedonian  Chris- 
tology,  and  infant  baptism  were  the  three  chief  sources 
of  churchly  corruption.^  He  recognised,  far  more  than 
his  opponents,  a  progress  in  revelation  from  the  Old 
Testament  to  the  New;  he  rejected  predestination  and 
attached  merit  to  good  works;  and  believed  the  end 
of  the  present  age  mth  the  millennial  reign  of  Christ  to 
be  just  at  hand.  For  that  reign  his  Restitution  was  to 
be  a  preparation. 

It  was  while  working  on  this  volume,  in  1545,  that 
Servetus    entered    into    correspondence    with    Calvin. 


1  Christianismi  Restitutio.     Two  copies  of  this  edition  exist,  one 
at  Paris,  the  other  at  Vienna. 

2  The  writer  has  taken  a  few  sentences  from  his  volume  on  The 
Reformation. 


M 

^    si 


r^     I 


X 


1557]        The  Tragedy  of  Servetus         329 

Begun  with  courtesy,  though  with  great  self-assertion 
on  Servetus's  part,  it  speedily  degenerated  into  an  ex- 
asperating controversy.  Calvin  sent  to  Servetus  a  copy 
of  his  LnslitiUes,  which  the  Spanish  thinker  returned 
filled  with  critical,  dissenting,  and  contemptuous  an- 
notations. On  the  other  hand,  Servetus  transmitted 
to  Calvin  a  portion  of  the  manuscript  of  his  volume 
which  Calvin  retained.  He  appealed,  also,  to  Poupin 
and  Viret,  evidently  hoping  to  win  some  one  of  the 
leaders  of  French-speaking  Switzerland  for  his  opinions. 
Calvin,  however,  wearied  speedily  of  so  fruitless  a  cor- 
respondence with  one  whom  he  deemed  a  heretic ;  and, 
writing  to  Farel,  on  February  13,  1546,  he  declared  that, 
should  Servetus  come  to  Geneva,  as  the  over-sanguine 
Spaniard  proposed,  he  would  never  suffer  Servetus  to 
go  forth  alive,  if  his  authority  had  weight.^ 

Many  causes  conspired  to  induce  such  sanguinary 
feelings  in  Calvin  toward  Servetus.  The  tone  in  which 
the  Spaniard  framed  his  criticisms,  not  merely  of  Ge- 
nevan, but  of  all  generally  accepted  thinking  on  the 
Trinity,  was  exasperating;  Calvin's  own  orthodoxy  on 
the  doctrine  had  been  a  tender  point  ever  since  the  con- 
troversy raised  by  Caroli  in  1537;  the  honour  of  God 
seemed  to  him  even  more  grievously  attacked  than  in 
the  case  of  Ameaux;  but  deepest  of  all  was  Calvin's 
profound  conviction  that  only  the  historic  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity,  taught,  he  believed,  throughout  the  Script- 
ures, maintained  the  full  divinity  of  Christ,  and  only 
as    that   divinity    was    perfect    was    there    adequate 


I  Opera,  xii.  283.     The  letter  was  written  in  the  midst  of  the  trial 
of  Ameaux. 


33^ 


John  Calvin  [1553- 


atonement  for  human  sin,  availing  intercession  with 
the  Father,  or  true  sonship  for  the  redeemed.'  Ser- 
vetus,  to  Calvin's  thinking,  destroyed  the  Christian 
hope;  and,  repulsive  as  it  seems  to  the  modern  man, 
he  deemed  it  his  duty  to  rid  the  world  of  such 
''impiety,"  should  the  opportunity  be  his,  and  Ser- 
vetus  still  be  unrepentant  of  his  "errors." 

Early  in  1553,  a  copy  of  the  Restitution,  then  just 
secretly  printed  by  Balthasar  Arnoullet  and  his  head- 
manager  Guillaume  Geroult,  at  Vienne,  reached  Ge- 
neva, possibly  sent  by  Servetus  to  Calvin.^  It  happened 
that,  at  the  time,  Calvin's  friend,  Guillaume  Trie,  once 
a  merchant  at  Lyons,  but  now  a  fugitive  for  his  faith 
at  Geneva,  was  in  correspondence  with  a  cousin,  An- 
toine  Ameys,  who  still  resided  at  Lyons,  was  an  ardent 
adherent  of  the  Roman  communion,  and  was  disposed 
to  rally  Trie  on  the  alleged  license  in  belief  prevalent 
in  Geneva.  To  him  Trie  replied  on  Februar}^  26,  1553, 
declaring  that  it  was  in  CathoUc  France,  rather  than  in 
Geneva,  that  blasphemies  were  tolerated,  and  giving 
as  his  proof  the  Restitution,  whose  author  and  pub- 
lisher he  named.  As  evidence  of  his  charges  he  en- 
closed the  first  few  pages  of  the  volume,  and  declared  of 
Servetus,  that  he  "ought  to  be  burned  alive,  wherever 
he  might  be  found."  This  letter  was  no  official  denun- 
ciation. It  was  from  one  cousin  to  another.  But,  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that,  writing  just  a  month  later,  Trie 
tells  Arneys  that  the  letter  was  meant  for  himself  alone, 


I  Compare   G.   Kawerau,   in  Moeller's    Lehrbuch  der  Kirchenge- 
schichte,  iii.  432. 

a  This  is  the  opinion  of  Willis,  pp.  231-234. 


1557]        The  Tragedy  of  Servetus         331 

its  writer  can  have  had  no  great  unwillingness  that  it 
be  laid  before  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  at  Lyons, — 
as  it  was.  Process  was  at  once  opened  against  Serve- 
tus, but  he  denied  his  identity,  alleging  that  he  was 
simply  the  physician,  Villeneuve;  and  neither  with  him 
nor  with  the  printers  were  incriminating  papers  found. 
Recourse  was  had  to  Trie  for  further  proof,  who  now, 
on  March  26th,  forwarded  to  Lyons  the  annotated  copy 
of  Calvin's  Institutes,  and  a  number  of  Servctus's  letters 
to  Calvin.  These  documents  he  declared  had  been 
procured  from  Calvin  with  great  difficulty.  Under  date 
of  March  3 1  st,  further  information  was  furnished  by  Trie. 
The  transaction  just  narrated  raises  a  difficult  ques- 
tion. Was  Calvin  the  instigator,  and  Trie  simply  the 
tool  in  this  denunciation  of  Servetus  to  the  French  au- 
thorities? The  affirmative  opinion  is  that  of  many 
recent  scholars.^  It  was  that  of  Servetus  himself.  =" 
On  the  other  hand,  it  has  been  vigorously  denied, ^  and 
Trie's  own  statements  already  cited,  are  confirmed  by 
Calvin's  rejection  of  the  imputation  that  he  had  him- 
self delivered  Servetus  to  the  Roman  ecclesiastics.'* 
To  the  writer  the  simplest  explanation  seems  to  be 
that  Trie,  as  a  friend  of  Calvin,  knew  in  general  of 
Servetus's  identity  and  book;  that  he  wrote  the  first 
letter  of  his  own  motion  to  Arneys,  thinking  the  oppor- 
tunity of  a  reply  to  his  cousin's  criticisms  of  Geneva 
too  good  to  miss ;  but  that  from  the  time  of  his  second 


^  E.g.  Roget,  iv.  25-27;  Willis,  pp.  235-251;    R,  Stiihelin,  p.  675. 

2  Opera,  viii.  732,  789,  805. 

2  E.g.  Henry,  iii.  140;    Choisy,  p.  131. 

4  Opera,  viii.  479. 


3?>^ 


John  Calvin  [1553- 


letter,  and  with  no  great  difficulty  in  spite  of  his  alle- 
gation, he  procured  from  Calvin  all  the  aid  and  docu- 
ments that  the  Genevan  reformer  was  able  to  furnish, 
so  that,  from  the  date  of  that  letter,  at  least,  Calvin 
must  be  deemed  the  chief,  though  indirect,  agent  in 
the  denunciation  of  Servetus  to  the  Catholic  court/ 

The  case  at  Vienne  moved  slowly.  Servetus  had 
personal  friends,  though  no  sympathisers  in  his  beliefs. 
By  their  connivance,  it  would  seem,  he  escaped  from 
prison,  on  April  7th;  on  June  17th,  his  trial  was  ended 
by  a  sentence  to  death  by  slow  fire,  which  was  executed 
in  effigy,^  Servetus  himself  having  fled  more  than  two 
months  earlier.  After  wandering  for  a  number  of 
weeks  in  Southern  France,  Servetus  came,  for  no  reason 
that  seems  conclusive ;  to  Geneva  itself,  intending  to 
make  it  a  stopping-place  on  his  way  to  Naples.  Though 
it  has  often  been  asserted  that  he  spent  a  month  un- 
recognised in  the  city,  there  is  no  real  reason  to  believe 
his  sojourn  was  more  than  a  few  days  in  length.^  He 
had  negotiated  for  a  boat  through  his  landlord  of  the 
"Rose"  tavern  to  continue  his  journey,  when,  on 
August  13th,  while  listening  to  a  sermon  by  Calvin,  it  is 
said,4  he  was  recognised,  and  soon  after  arrested,  un- 
doubtedly at  Calvin's  instigation.^     Had  Calvin  been 

1 1  owe  to  Rev.  Nathanael  Weiss  the  probable  suggestion  that  Calvin 
may  have  hoped  to  aid  the  *  'five  scholars  of  Lausanne,"  (p.  382)  by 
unmasking  Servetus  and  thus  doing  a  favour  to  their  captors  in  Lyons. 

2  Opera,  viii.  784-787. 

3  Compare  Servetus's  own  statement,  Opera,  viii.  770;  the  notes 
of  the  Strassburg  editors,  Ihid.,  xiv.  590;    and  Roget,  iv.  41-43. 

4  Notes  to  Opera,  viii.  725. 

5  Calvin's  letters,  Opera,  xiv.  589,  615. 


1557]       The  Tragedy  of  Servetus 


333 


indisposed  to  severity,  he  might  have  prevented  Ser- 
vetus's  incarceration  till  it  was  evident  that  the  Span- 
iard intended  to  remain  in  Geneva;  but  he  felt  that 
Servetus  had  been  deUvered  into  his  hands,  and  that 
he  ought  to  prevent  further  "contagion."  From  the 
first,  Calvin  hoped  that  Servetus  would  forfeit  his  life, 
though  not  by  a  painful  death/ 

The  trial  opened  quite  as  Calvin  wished.  A  refugee 
in  his  employ,  Nicolas  de  la  Fontaine,  made  the  com- 
plaint, and  took  upon  himself  the  liabilities  of  a  false 
accuser,  should  it  not  be  proved.  Thirty-eight  counts 
were  alleged  against  Servetus  before  the  civil  court, 
mostly  of  a  theological  character,  though  embracing 
also  his  attacks  on  Calvin.  To  these  Servetus  replied 
with  skill;  and  now  a  new  force  made  itself  apparent. 
Servetus  won  no  converts,  his  theological  speculations 
in  themselves  were  not  approved,  but  he  was  Calvin's 
opponent.  His  conviction  would  be  a  triumph  for 
Calvin's  waning  authority  in  the  city.  These  considera- 
tions, rather  than  any  doctrinal  sympathy,  explain  the 
support  which  Servetus  now  received  from  Calvin's 
Genevan  foes.  At  the  hearing  on  August  i6th,  hot 
words  were  exchanged  between  Philibert  BertheUer 
representing  the  lieutenant  of  justice,  and  the  learned 
refugee  lawyer,  Calvin's  friend,  Germain  Colladon,  who 
now  appeared  as  counsel  for  the  prosecution.  It  was 
evident  that  the  case  was  to  involve  much  more  than 
Servetus 's  heresies.     It  was  to  test  the  relative  strength 


^  "I  hope  the  judgment  will  be  capital  in  any  event,  but  I  desire 
cruelty  of  punishment  withheld."  Letter  to  Farel,  August  20th,  above 
dted. 


334 


John   Calvin  [1553- 


of  the  rival  parties  in  Geneva,  and  the  permanence  of 
Calvin's  control.  For  this  new  struggle,  in  spite  of 
a  personally  hostile  majority  in  the  Little  Council, 
Calvin  had  the  great  advantage  of  demanding  justice 
on  one  who  seemed  to  most  religious  men  an  intoler- 
able heretic.  Berthelier,  blind  with  party  hatred,  had 
put  himself  in  the  precarious  position  of  staking  his 
success  on  the  defence  of  a  discredited  cause,  and  that 
not  because  he  believed  in  the  accused,  but  because  he 
disUked  the  accuser.  The  condemnation  of  Servetus 
now  became  \ital  to  Calvin's  whole  Genevan  status. 

Calvin  felt  the  gravity  of  the  situation.  On  August 
17th,  he  appeared  in  person  before  the  Little  Council 
against  Servetus.  The  examination  took  a  technical 
character.  Not  only  were  the  Trinitarian  attacks  in  the 
Restitution  debated;  but  a  criticism  of  the  fertility  of 
Palestine  implying  that  it  was  not  a  land  "flowing  with 
milk  and  honey,"  which  Servetus  had  copied  into  his 
edition  of  Ptolemy,  was  made  the  basis  by  Calvin  of 
accusation  that  Servetus  had  brought  charges  of  falsity 
against  Moses,  and  therefore  of  blasphemy  against  the 
Holy  Spirit  by  whose  inspiration  Moses,  Calvin  beheved, 
had  spoken.  Calvin  also  pushed  Servetus  to  the  decla- 
ration consonant  with  his  pantheistic  principles,  that 
the  very  floor  and  benches  of  the  court-room  were 
"the  substance  of  God,"  upon  which  Calvin  declared, 
"Then  the  devil  is  God  in  substance, "  to  which  Servetus 
replied,  \vith  a  laugh  that  must  have  prejudiced  his 
case  with  the  judges,  "Do  you  doubt  it?"  ' 

I  This  is  Calvin's  account  of  the  point  last  discussed,  Opera,  viii. 
496.     Perhaps  it  is  to  be  taken  with  some  reserve,  Roget,  iv.  52, 


1557]        The  Tragedy  of  Servetus         335 

The  Little  Council,  however  averse  to  Calvin  some  of 
its  members  were,  could  not  doubt  that  the  case  was 
one  of  great  seriousness.  On  August  17th,  it  freed  de 
la  Fontaine  from  further  responsibility,  and  the  pro- 
secution now  fell  into  the  charge  of  the  states-attorney 
of  the  city,  Claude  Rigot,  a  friend  of  Calvin.  Four 
days  later,  the  Little  Council  determined  to  ask  the 
advice  of  Bern,  Basel,  Zurich,  and  Schaffhausen,  and 
also  to  obtain  from  Vienne  the  action  of  its  court  against 
the  prisoner.  There  is  no  reason  to  see  any  plan  to 
aid  Servetus  in  this  determination  to  ask  outside 
opinion.  The  condemnation  of  one  accused  of  heresy 
was  a  formidable  step,  and  the  Council,  doubtless, 
desired  to  act  with  care.  But  this  consultation  un- 
doubtedly encouraged  the  hopes  of  Servetus  and  of 
Calvin's  opponents.  It  must  have  been  remembered 
that  in  the  recent  case  of  Bolsec  the  advice  of  the  Swiss 
cantons,  and  their  ministers,  had  been  in  favour  of 
leniency.  To  that  extent  it  was  a  rebuff  to  Calvin,  who 
preferred  that  the  court  should  convict  the  prisoner 
without  delay.  On  August  23d,  Servetus  had  to  answer 
to  a  new  series  of  charges  prepared  by  the  states-attorney 
and  of  such  a  character  that,  while  the  trial  did  not 
cease  to  be  for  heresy,  Servetus 's  Hfe  and  the  general 
evil  influences  of  his  teachings,  rather  than  theological 
minutiae,  were  emphasised.  The  attempt  to  prove 
Servetus  of  unworthy  life  failed  completely;  nor  could 
it  be  shown  that  he  was  an  intentional  turmoiler  of  pub- 
lic peace.  He  asserted  with  sincerity  that  his  advocacy 
of  his  views  had  been  under  the  impulse  of  a  sense 
of  duty.      Undoubtedly  Servetus,    thus   interrogated^ 


336  John  Calvin  [1553- 

made  a  much  better  impression  on  the  court  than 
earlier,  and  this  slight  success  was  strengthened  by 
his  plea  that  his  discussions  had  always  been  with 
learned  men  on  abstruse  questions  of  theology,  and 
involved  no  seditious  actions  whatever.  Rigot's  ef- 
forts had  injured,  rather  than  aided,  the  prosecu- 
tion. To  the  demand  of  the  authorities  of  Vienne 
that  Servetus  be  extradited  to  them  for  execution,  the 
Little  Council,  on  August  31st,  sent  a  poUtely  phrased 
refusal. 

On  August  17th,  the  Little  Council  had  directed  that 
an  attempt  be  made  to  show  Servetus  his  "errors." 
That  indicated  a  discussion,  for  which  Cahdn  was 
nothing  loath;  and  on  September  ist,  such  a  colloquy 
was  begun  between  the  two  contestants,  before  the 
judges,  including  Ami  Perrin  and  Phihbert  Berthelier. 
The  debate  was  confused  and  unsatisfactory.  Servetus 
objected  that  the  prison  was  no  fit  place;  to  which 
Calvin  agreed  and  expressed  a  wish  for  a  public  dis- 
putation; but  the  authorities  cut  short  all  debate, 
ordering  Calvin  to  present  Servetus's  errors  in  wTiting 
and  the  latter  to  reply,  both  using  Latin.  Two  reasons 
seem  to  have  induced  this  action.  Perrin  and  Ber- 
thelier undoubtedly  feared  that  a  public  disputation 
with  so  able  a  debater  as  Calvin  would  mean  a  popular 
\dctory  for  the  reformer, — a  result  highly  displeasing  to 
them;  and  the  preparation  of  such  documents  w^ould 
afford  material,  in  which  Servetus  could  make  the  best 
statement  of  his  case  possible,  for  presentation  to  the 
Swiss  cantons,  the  ad\dce  of  which  it  had  been  decided 
to  ask.    Calvin's  opponents,  though  not  daring  to  back 


1557]        The  Tragedy  of  Servetus         337 

Scrvetus  openly,  were  causing  all  the  delay  they  could, 
and  making  the  outcome  of  the  trinl  as  dubious  as  pos- 
sible; and  Servetus  himself  took  great  encouragement 
from  their  support.  The  accusations  of  heresy  drawn 
from  Servetus's  writings  were  quickly  formulated  by 
Calvin;  and  the  prisoner  was  prompt  with  his  reply, — 
his  confidence  in  the  support  of  Calvin's  enemies  ap- 
pearing in  the  contemptuous  tone  of  the  answer.  Ser- 
vetus declares  Calvin  to  be  a  disciple  of  Simon  Magus, 
of  confused  mind,  who  hopes  by  barking  like  a  dog 
to  overwhelm  the  judges.  To  this  reply  a  rejoinder, 
couched  in  severe  terms,  was  made  and  signed  by 
all  the  Genevan  ministers.  Delivered  to  Servetus  on 
September  15th,  in  the  course  of  the  next  tw^o  or  three 
days  he  annotated  the  paper  with  replies  that  are 
marvellous  in  their  exasperating  character  considering 
the  circumstances  under  which  they  were  written,^ 
"You  lie,"  "you  play  the  fool,"  "you  rave,"  "cheat," 
"vile  scoundrel"  are  among  the  accusations  and  epi- 
thets which  he  employed.  On  the  2 2d,  Servetus  sent 
a  remarkable  appeal  to  the  Genevan  government, 
demanding  the  arrest  of  Calvin  under  the  lex  talionis, 
as  a  false  accuser  and  a  heretic,  and  "that  the  case  be 
settled  by  his  or  my  death  or  other  penalty."  He  asked 
that  Calvin  "be  not  merely  condemned  but  exter- 
minated" and  his  goods  adjudged  to  himself.  Mean- 
while, on  September  2 2d,  the  letters  of  inquiry,  voted 
on  August  I  yth,  were  despatched  by  the  Little  Council 
to  the  ministers  and  magistrates  of  Bern,  Basel,  Zurich, 


I  All  these  documents  are  given  in  Opera,  viii.  501-553. 


338  John  Calvin  [1553- 

and  Schaffhausen.    The  progress  of  events  now  awaited 
their  answer. 

The  reasons  of  Servetus's  defiant  attitude  and  ex- 
pectations of  acquittal  were  largely  temperamental, 
but  they  were  undoubtedly  greatly  strengthened  by  a 
new  struggle  in  which  Calvin  found  himself  engaged 
and  that  promised  indirect  advantage  to  the  prisoner. 
There  has  been  frequent  occasion  to  note  the  aversion 
of  Calvin's  opponents,  both  of  those  of  undisciplined 
life  and  the  more  worthy  representatives  of  old  Genevan 
independence,  towards  the  central  element  of  his  ec- 
clesiastical government,  the  Consistory,  and  especially 
towards  the  power  of  excommunication  exercised  by 
it.  That  power,  though  regularly  employed,  had  long 
been  in  dispute,  and  had  several  times  seemed  on  the 
point  of  being  taken  away  by  the  Little  Council.  To 
Perrin,  Vandel,  and  Berthelier  the  present  juncture 
seemed  a  fitting  time  to  assert  the  superiority  of  the 
Little  Council  over  the  Consistory.  Calvin  was  busied 
with  the  case  of  Servetus ;  the  issue  of  the  trial  depended 
on  the  Little  Council  and  was  of  utmost  consequence 
to  him.  Should  the  Little  Council,  in  which  the  Perrin- 
ists  had  a  decided  majority,  now  withdraw  the  right 
of  independent  excommunication  from  the  Consistory, 
Calvin  might  acquiesce,  however  reluctantly,  lest  his 
opposition  should  cost  him  the  support  of  the  Little 
Council  in  the  conviction  of  Servetus.  Berthelier 
seemed  the  fitting  agent  for  the  attack.  He  was 
courageous,  fond  of  fighting,  popular,  and  under  ex- 
communication by  the  Consistory;  unfortunately  for 
his  party,   however,   his  life  was  notoriously  blame- 


1557]       The  Tragedy  of  Servetus         339 

worthy,  and  his  discipline  not  undeserved.  On  Sep- 
tember ist,  he  now  appeared  before  the  Little  Council, 
and  demanded  that  it  supersede  the  excommunication 
of  the  Consistory,  and  admit  him  to  the  communion  to 
be  held  on  Sunday,  September  ^d.  Calvin  was  called 
to  express  his  opinion.  It  was  a  crisis  as  vital  for  his 
church-government  as  it  was  unexpected;  but  he  pro- 
tested against  the  proposed  action  to  the  utmost  of  his 
power.  In  vain,  however,  for  the  Little  Council 
granted  Berthelier's  request.'  That  result  called  for 
Calvin's  utmost  energy  of  protest.  He  demanded,  and 
obtained,  a  meeting  of  the  Little  Council  on  Saturday, 
and  declared  that  he  would  die  before  he  would  ad- 
minister the  Sacrament  to  Berthelier.  To  all  outward 
appearance  he  failed  once  more.  The  Little  Council 
held  to  its  decision.  But  really  his  iron  firmness  of 
wall  snatched  success  from  defeat;  for  while  reaffirming 
its  release  of  Berthelier  from  excommunication,  the 
Little  Council  advised  him,  secretly  it  would  appear, 
not  to  present  himself  at  the  Lord's  Table.  It  was  a 
thoroughly  weak  compromise.  Whether  Calvin  was 
aware  of  it  is  uncertain,  but  he  was  determined  that 
there  should  be  no  popular  doubt  as  to  his  posi- 
tion. Before  the  crowded  congregation,  gathered 
the  next  day  for  the  Lord's  Supper  in  Saint-Pierre, 
and  eagerly  anticipating  a  scene,  he  forbade  anyone 
under  bann  of  the  Consistory  to  commune,  and  de- 
clared that  none  should  do  so  while  he  had  strength 
to  oppose. 


^  Regisires,  and  Calvin's  letters,  Opera,  xiv.  605,  654;  xxi.  551 
Roget,  iv.  61-73;   Kampschulte,  ii.  203-223. 


340  John  Calvin  [1553- 

Fortunately  for  Calvin,  Berthelier  had  heeded  the 
advice  and  was  absent.  The  situation  was  in  the  high- 
est degree  critical.  Calvin  had  defied  the  Little  Council. 
He  was  so  convinced  that  his  action  would  be  resented 
that  he  preached,  that  afternoon,  what  was  well-nigh  a 
farewell  sermon.  His  courage  had,  however,  but  in- 
creased the  indecision  of  the  Council.  On  September 
7th,  he  and  his  fellow-ministers  made  formal  protest  to 
that  body;  again  on  the  15th;  and  on  the  i8th,  the 
Little  Council  voted  to  "hold  to  the  Ordonnances  as 
before."  That  left  the  question  of  excommunication 
where  it  had  been  previous  to  Berthelier's  attack.  It 
was  still  one  in  dispute ;  but  the  real  victory  was  Cal- 
vin's. Berthelier's  attempt  had  been  frustrated  by 
Calvin's  force  of  character. 

It  is  not  surprising,  however,  that  Servetus  took 
courage  and  gained  hope  of  release  from  this  struggle. 
Calvin's  defeat  would  have  been  his  advantage;  but 
the  result  left  him  in  worse  case  than  ever.  And,  on 
October  i8th,  the  replies  of  the  Swiss  ministers  and 
governments  arrived.  In  marked  contrast  to  the 
answers  in  the  case  of  Bolsec,  all  now  condemned  the 
teachings  of  the  prisoner,  and  approved  the  attitude  of 
Calvin  and  his  associates.  While  no  direct  recom- 
mendations as  to  punishment  were  made,  all,  and 
notably  Bern,  made  it  evident  that  it  should  be  such  as 
would  ''remove  this  pest"  from  the  churches.^  It  was 
evident  to  all  that  Calvin  had  the  support  of  Protestant 
Smtzerland.     His    opponents    were    beaten.     Perrin 


I  opera,  viii.  819.     For  these  letters,  see  Ibid.,  pp.  555-558,  808- 
823. 


1557]       The  Tra^^cdy  of  Servetus  341 

tried  to  delay  the  conclusion  by  absenting  himself  from 
the  Little  Council  and  by  proposing  an  appeal  to  the 
Two  Hundred,^  but  to  no  purpose.  On  October  26th, 
the  Council  ordered  that  Servetus  be  burned  alive  the 
day  following.  Calvin  sought  a  milder  form  of  death, — 
his  disinclination  toward  cruel  executions  has  already 
been  noted, "^ — but  in  this  the  court  gave  him  no  heed. 
To  Servetus  the  sentence  seems  to  have  been  wholly 
unexpected,  and  its  first  effect  was  crushing.  His 
courage  came  again,  however,  and  he  never  appeared 
to  better  advantage  than  in  his  last  hours.  He  sent  for 
Calvin,  and  begged  pardon  for  any  wrong  he  might 
have  done  the  Genevan  reformer;  he  asked  an  easier 
death,  not  because  he  retracted  any  of  his  opinions, 
but  lest  in  the  agony  of  fire  he  should  deny  the  truths 
which  he  championed.  He  went  in  simple  dignity  to 
the  place  of  execution  on  the  hill  of  Champel,  lectured 
and  urged  to  repent  by  Farel,  who  had  come  to  Geneva 
for  the  final  scene.  At  the  sight  of  the  flaming  torch, 
Servetus  could  not  repress  a  cry  of  horror;  but  his 
courage  was  adequate  to  his  extremity.  The  unskilful- 
ness  of  the  executioner, — not  any  intention  as  has  been 
sometimes  charged, — prolonged  his  agony;  but  the 
last  utterance  that  escaped  his  bHstering  lips,  as  the 
flames  tortured  Ms  body,  was  a  prayer  expressive  at 
once  of  his  Christian  hope,  and  of  the  peculiar  inter- 
pretation of  the  mysterious  doctrine  of  the  Trinity 
which  he  had  championed,  and  for  which  he  died: 


1  Calvin  to  Farel,  October  26th,  Opera,  xiv.  657. 

2  Ibid.;    see  ante,  p.  283.     The   sentence   is  given  in  Opera,  \m. 
827-830. 


342 


John  Calvin  [1553- 


"  Jesus,  thou  Son  of  the  eternal  God,   have  pity  on 
me!"^ 

To  one  whose  fortune  it  is  to  live  under  the  greater 
freedom  of  the  twentieth  century,  such  a  scene,  and  the 
bitter  prosecution  of  which  it  was  the  crown,  is  utterly 
repulsive.  His  sympathies,  whatever  his  estimate  of 
the  theological  questions  involved,  or  however  keenly 
he  may  recognise  the  many  weaknesses  of  the  sufferer, 
go  out  toward  the  victim  of  the  tragedy.  Calvin's 
eagerness  to  secure  his  conviction  and  the  co-operation 
with  the  authorities  at  Vienne,  however  explainable,  are 
not  pleasant  to  contemplate.  Those  who  erected  a 
monument  to  Servetus,  near  the  place  of  his  martyr- 
dom, on  its  three  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniver- 
sary in  1903,  did  well.^  That  faggot-heap  was  a 
mile-stone  from  which  the  world's  progress  along 
the  pathway  toward  freedom  of  utterance  may  be 
reckoned. 

The  burning  of  Servetus  did  not,  indeed,  pass  alto- 
gether uncondemned  in  its  own  time.  At  Basel,  es- 
pecially, where  greater  freedom  existed  than  elsewhere 
in  Switzerland,  and  where  Castellio  had  some  slight 
influence,  voices  were  raised  in  criticism.  Many  of 
the  Italian  Protestant  refugees,  themselves  for  the  most 
part  radicals,  dissented.  Calvin  felt  the  criticism,  and, 
in  February,  1554,  he  published,  with  the  approving 


^  It  is  perhaps  unnecessary  to  point  out,  even  in  an  untheological 
age,  that  the  difference  between  the  phrases  "  Son  of  the  eternal  God  " 
and  "eternal  Son  of  God,"  with  their  implications,  epitomises  the 
dispute. 

^  See  the  Monument  expiatoire  du  supplice  de  M.  Servet,  Genera, 
1903. 


EXPIATORY   MONUMENT  TO   SERVETUS.     (ERECTED    IN   1903J 


1557]        The  Tragedy  of  Servetus 


343 


signatures  of  his  colleagues  in  the  Genevan  ministry,  his 
Rejutation  of  the  Errors  of  Servelus^^  in  which  he  gave 
not  merely  his  own  version  of  the  tragedy,  but  a  defence 
of  the  employment  of  capital  punishment  for  the  re- 
pression of  heretics  in  general.^  To  Calvin's  anger, 
this  narrative  drew  from  his  old  opponent  Castellio, 
and  some  associates,  a  volume  sharply  criticising  the 
use  of  force  in  religion,  and  containing  a  widely  selected 
collection  of  opinions  in  favour  of  toleration.  "Christ 
would  be  a  Moloch,"  it  urged,  ''if  He  required  that  men 
should  be  offered  and  burned  alive."  ^ 

These  voices  were,  however,  relatively  few  and  un- 
influential.  The  general  opinion  in  Protestant  circles 
was  that  the  world  was  happily  rid  of  Servetus  and  that 
Calvin  had  done  well.  His  Genevan  associates  ap- 
proved; the  Swiss  churches  favoured  him;  even  so 
mild  a  man  as  Melanchthon  declared  that  it  was  "justly 
done."  4  Nor  can  there  be  any  question  as  to  its  effect 
upon  his  own  position  and  the  Evangelical  cause.  He 
had  freed  the  Swiss  churches  from  imputation  of  heresy ; 
he  had  prevented  any  toleration  of  anti-Trinitarian 
opinions  in  the  religious  circles  that  looked  to  him  for 
guidance.  Above  all,  his  Genevan  opponents  had 
compromised  themselves  irretrievably  by  countenancing, 


^  Dejensio  Orthodoxae  Fidel  de  Sacra  Trinitate,  etc.,  Opera,  viii. 
453-644- 

3  Ibid.,  pp.  461-479. 

3  It  was  published  in  March,  1554,  under  the  pseudonym  of  Mar- 
tinus  Bellius,  and  ostensibly  at  Magdeburg,  as  De  Haereticis,  an  sint 
persequendi?  In  Calvin's  opinion,  Castellio  was  a  "beast,  no  less 
virulent,  than  untamed  and  obstinate."     Opera,  xv.  209. 

4  Letter  of  October  14,  1554,  to  Calvin,  Opera,  xv.  26S. 


344 


John  Calvin  [1553- 


not  out  of  theologic  sympathy,  but  out  of  hatred  to  him, 
a  man  whom  most  of  the  world  looked  upon  as  a  justly 
punished  heretic. 

Yet  this  enfeeblement  of  Calvin's  opponents  was  not 
immediately  evident.  Scarcely  had  Servetus  been  ex- 
ecuted when  Berthelier  renewed  the  long  struggle  with 
the  Consistory.  On  November  7th,  the  Little  Council 
referred  the  thorny  problem  to  the  Two  Hundred, 
which  decreed  that  the  Consistory  had  no  power  to 
excommunicate  without  orders  from  the  Council. 
So  energetic  was  the  protest  of  the  ministers,  led  by 
Calvin,  however,  that  the  Little  Council  and  the  Two 
Hundred  weakened  its  position,  so  far  as  to  decide  to 
ask  the  opinions  of  the  churches  of  Bern,  Zurich,  Basel, 
and  Schaffhausen.'  As  might  have  been  expected,  from 
the  customs  of  other  Swiss  churches,  the  replies  were 
far  from  a  complete  support  of  Calvin's  discipline. 
Thanks  to  his  efforts,  aided  by  Bullinger,  those  of  Zu- 
rich and  Schaffhausen  were  favourable;  but  Bern  was 
distinctly  hostile.  Yet  it  shows  the  w^eakening  of  the 
opposition,  that,  instead  of  asserting  their  claims,  the 
Little  Council  and  the  Two  Hundred  now  patched  up 
a  truce  that,  while  nominally  leaving  the  question  where 
it  was  before,  was  really  a  victory  for  Calvin's  disci- 
pline. Even  Perrin  saw  that  his  attack  had  failed. 
The  events  of  the  year  1553  had  changed  the  balance  of 
power  in  Geneva,  and  further  evidence  of  the  decUne 
of  the  opposition  was  manifest  in  the  choice,  at  the 
February  election  of  1554,  of  three  of  the  four  syndics 
from  among  Calvin's  supporters.     In  October  following, 

^  Registres  du  Conseil,  xlvii.  175-177;    Opera,  xxi.  559-561. 


1557]  Victory  over  Opponents  345 

Bcrlhclicr  still  continuing  his  refusal  of  oljcdience  to 
the  Consistory,  a  commission  was  a])i)ointe(l  to  consider 
the  problem  of  the  right  of  excommunication;  and 
finally,  in  January,  1555,  to  Calvin's  great  satisfaction, 
the  question  which  had  been  agitated  for  years  was 
settled  by  the  successive  votes  of  the  Little  Council, 
the  Sixty,  and  the  Two  Hundred,  that  they  abide  by 
the  Ordonnances^  In  form  this  was,  indeerl,  incon- 
clusive. The  inteqjretation  of  the  Ordonnances  had 
been  in  dispute.  But,  in  reality,  the  decision  finally 
confirmed  the  existing  usage,  which  Calvin  had  so  long 
struggled  to  maintain.  He  could  now  rest  satisfied 
that  the  power  of  excommunication  without  interfer- 
ence from  the  civil  authorities  was  secure.  The  corner- 
stone of  his  Genevan  ecclesiastical  edifice  was  at  last 
firmly  laid. 

While  Calvin's  position  was  rapidly  strengthening  in 
Geneva,  he  was  subject,  to  a  degree  never  before  ex- 
perienced, to  attack  from  outside  Genevan  territories. 
Some  of  this  hostility  which  centred  in  Castellio  at 
Basel,  but  was  by  no  means  confined  to  him  there,  has 
already  been  noted.  In  that  city,  to  be  called  a  disciple 
of  Calvin  passed  with  many  for  a  term  of  reproach,  "^ — 
the  reason  being  far  more  Calvin's  strenuous  insistence 
on  the  doctrine  of  predestination,  than  his  action  in  the 
case  of  Servetus.  That  doctrine,  as  was  noted  in  con- 
nection with  the  trial  of  Bolsec,  w^on  no  hearty  ap- 


^  Registres  du  Conseil,  xlviii.  138,  176-182;  Opera,  xxi.  588,  593, 
594;  Roget,  iv.  186-192;  Kampschulte,  ii.  254-256.  See  Calvin's 
letter  to  Bullinger,  Opera,  xv.  449. 

» Hotman  to  Bullinger,  quoted  by  Kampschulte,  ii.  225. 


346  John  Calvin  [1553- 

proval,  in  its  strenuous  Genevan  form,  from  the  other 
Swiss  churches.^  Bern,  in  particular,  had  dissented; 
and  from  Bern  Calvin's  chief  troubles  now  came. 
There  were  many  causes  for  Bernese  hostility.  Bern 
and  Geneva  had  long-standing  sources  of  quarrel  in 
their  political  relations.  Bern  was  suspicious  of  the 
growing  influence  of  the  French  refugees  on  whom 
Cahin  so  largely  depended.  It  preferred  and  supported 
the  old  Genevan  element  represented  by  Perrin  and 
Vandel,  as  more  pliable  toward  its  own  interests  and 
hostile  to  any  possible  French  alliances.  The  Bernese 
ministr}^  \dewed  mth  distrust  the  Genevan  discipline, 
so  different  from  their  own;  and  the  international 
fame  of  the  head  of  the  Genevan  church  was  regarded 
with  some  natural  jealousy.  Chief  of  all  sources  of 
friction  was,  however,  the  state  of  the  French-speaking 
territories  under  Bernese  jurisdiction.  They  extended 
almost  to  the  walls  of  Geneva,  their  ministr}^  was  in 
general  sympathy  ^^'ith  Cahdn  and  his  methods, — a 
notable  example  is  that  of  Viret,  at  Lausanne, — 
yet  their  churches  were  under  the  Bernese  govern- 
ment. 

Since  Bolsec's  banishment  from  Geneva  in  1551,  he 
had  been  permitted  the  range  of  its  territories  by  Bern, 
and  had  laboured  in  French-speaking  Switzerland  as 
the  determined  enemy  of  Calvin.  Bolsec's  attacks  on 
Calvin's  strict  doctrine  of  predestination  found  hearing. 
Andre  Zebedee  and  Jean  Lange,  pastors  at  Nyon  and 
Bursin,  sympathised  with  him,  and  Calvin  v/as  soon 


I  Ante,  p.  318.     Except,  of  course,  those,  like  Neuchatcl,  in  which 
Calvin's  friends  were  in  control. 


1557]         Victory  over  Opponents  347 

denounced  as  ''a  heretic  and  antichrist."  '  The  Ge- 
nevan ministers  complained  to  the  Bernese  authorities, 
but  received  little  satisfaction.  In  January,  1555,  the 
Bernese  Council  ordered  attacks,  indeed,  to  cease;  but 
at  the  same  time  declared  the  disputed  doctrine  to  ])C 
more  fitted  to  awaken  strife,  hatred,  and  immorality 
than  edification.  This  was  painful  enough  for  Calvin, 
but  worse  was  to  follow.  In  March,  an  embassy  from 
the  Genevan  Little  Council,  in  which  Calvin's  friends 
now  had  a  majority,  appeared  in  his  behalf  before  the 
Bernese  government,  accompanied  by  Calvin  himself. 
Bolsec's  ejection  from  Bernese  territory,  as  a  disturber 
of  the  peace,  was  obtained.^  But  the  Council  of  Bern 
affirmed  that  both  Calvin  and  his  opponents  had  been 
too  contentious  and  too  eager  to  pry  into  the  hidden 
mysteries  of  the  Divine  counsels ;  and  they  added  the 
insulting  declaration  that  if  any  books  by  him  or  others 
contrary  to  the  Bernese  reformation  were  found  in  their 
jurisdiction  they  should  be  burned.^  Calvin  was  not, 
indeed,  expressly  declared  a  heretic  on  the  question  of 
predestination  by  Geneva's  chief  Protestant  neighbour; 
but  that  was  the  interpretation  naturally  put  upon  this 
action  by  a  large  part  of  the  public,  and  in  Bernese 
territories  heated  attacks  upon  his  orthodoxy  were 
widely  made. 

Had  these  events  occurred  two  years  earlier,  there 


I  Complaint  to  the  Bernese  government  of  the  Genevan  pastors, 
October  4,  1554,  Opera,  xv.  252.  For  the  whole  case  see  the  letters 
in  Opera,  xv.;  also  Roget,  iv.  171-183,  202-224;  Kampschulte,  ii. 
232-243. 

»  Farel  to  Haller,  March  29,  Opera,  xv.  533. 

3  Opera,  xv.  543-549- 


348  John  Calvin  [1553- 

can  be  little  doubt  that,  combined  with  the  hostility  of 
Perrin,  Vandel,  and  Berthelier,  they  would  have  sufficed 
to  end  his  Genevan  ministry.     But  in  Geneva  itself, 
Cahin's  situation  had  been  growing  steadily  stronger 
since  the  close  of  1 5 53.     The  errors  of  his  opponents  had 
aided  him.     A  body  of  young  citizens  was  being  trained 
year  by  year  under  his  ministry,  and  was  increasingly 
influenced  by  his  ideals.     But,  above  all,  the  refugees 
were  a  steadily  augmenting  force  in  the  community 
and  their  weight  was  almost  wholly  on  Calvin's  side. 
As    compared    with    the    ordinary    Genevan    artisan- 
citizen  they  were  men  of  character,  learning,  often  of 
wealth  and  high  social  standing.     They  had  had  the 
courage  to  leave  home  and  country  for  conscience's 
sake.     They  were  a  picked  body  of  men,  chiefly  from 
France,  and  in  much  fewer  numbers  from  Italy,  but 
also    from    England    and    Scotland,    especially    after 
Catholic   Mary   had   succeeded   Edward   VI.    on   the 
English  throne.     Such  men  as  the  Neapolitan  noble- 
man Galeazzo  Caraccioli,  marquis  of  Vico,  the  Colla- 
dons  and  the  Budes,  or  Laurent  de  Normandie,  would 
have  been  eminent  anywhere, — in  httle  Geneva  they 
were  imposing.     As  has  been  well  said:    "There  was 
perhaps  in  the  Protestant  world  no  other  community 
that  could  show  so  many  noble,  distinguished,   and 
aristocratic  names."  '     And  their  presence  in  Geneva 
was  Calvin's  work.     Such  refugees  could  not  but  grad- 
ually win  favour  with  the  ordinar>^  Genevan  citizen, 
however  heartily  Perrin,  Vandel,  Bertheher,  and  their 
followers  might  hate  them;    and  in  so  far  as  they  com- 


I  Kampschulte,  ii.  247. 


1557]         Victory  over  Opponents  349 

mended  themselves  they  increased  Calvin's  credit  and 
influence  in  the  Genevan  community.  The  common 
Genevan  was  pleased  alike  with  the  distinction  they 
gave  the  city,  and  with  the  added  trade  which  they 
brought. 

Though  many  of  these  immigrants  had  received  the 
right  of  habitation,  relatively  few  had  been  admitted 
burghers  and  become  possessed  in  consequence  of  a 
voice  in  city  pohtics.  Twenty-six  had  been  so  received 
in  1553,  and  seven  in  1554.  But  the  elections,  which 
had  been  favourable  to  Calvin  in  the  latter  year,  resulted 
yet  more  satisfactorily  for  the  reformer  in  February, 
1555,  partly  on  account  of  Calvin's  growing  strength 
and  partly  by  reason  of  popular  weariness  because  of 
the  degree  to  which  Perrin  had  used  his  position  in  the 
government  to  exalt  himself,  his  relatives,  and  friends. 
Not  merely  were  all  four  syndics  now^  decided  Calvin- 
ists,  but  the  Calvinist  vote  in  the  Little  Council  and 
the  Two  Hundred  was  greatly  increased.  The  party 
favourable  to  the  reformer  now  determined  to  make  its 
position  permanently  secure  by  admitting  a  sufficient 
number  of  refugees  as  burghers,'  thus  rendering  forever 
idle  such  opposition  as  the  old  Genevan  party  had 
hitherto  made.  Beginning  on  x\pril  i6th,  by  May  9th, 
sixty  new  burghers  had  thus  been  created,  among  them 
such  men  as  Guillaume  Trie,  Laurent  de  Normandie, 
Germain  Colladon,  Jean  and  Francois  Bude,  and  Jean 
Crespin,  devoted  supporters  of  Calvin.  Perrin,  Vandel, 
and  Berthelier,  at  first  scarcely  suspicious,  soon  saw^  all 


I  Calvin  to  Bullinger,   July  15,   1555,  Opera,  xv.  678,  679.      He 
states  the  purpose  distinctly. 


3SO 


John  Calvin  [1553- 


too  clearly  what  the  consequences  of  this  drastic  action 
would  be.  They  sought  in  vain  to  keep  the  new 
citizens  unarmed,  and  to  deprive  them  of  the  right  of 
voting  for  ten  years.  The  fears  of  Calvin's  opponents 
rapidly  increased.  On  May  13th,  the  old-Genevan 
Lieutenant  of  Justice,  Hudriot  du  Molard,  made  formal 
protest  to  the  Little  Council  and  demanded  the  summons 
of  the  Two  Hundred.  The  Little  Council  rephed  by 
voting  to  continue  to  receive  new  citizens.  The  next 
day  he  renewed  his  protest,  accompanied  by  a  crowd  of 
sympathisers,  only  to  receive  the  same  answer.^ 

The  evident  defeat  of  the  lately  powerful  Perrinist 
party,  and  their  inabihty  to  accomphsh  anything  to 
avert  the  catastrophe  by  legal  means,  now  led  to  a  step 
which  proved  their  ruin,  the  exact  nature  of  which  has 
been  much  controverted,  though  its  results  are  evident.'' 
On  the  evening  of  May  16,  1555,  a  number  of  the  Perrin- 
ist party,  including  Perrin  and  Vandel,  supped  at  two 
taverns  and  denounced  with  much  heat  the  Genevan 
situation.  They  probably  intended  some  further  and 
more  energetic  demonstration  against  the  poHcy  of  the 
government  than  that  of  May  14th,  but  no  carefully 


I  Registres  du  Conseil,  xlix.  70-76;   Opera,  xxi.  604,  605. 

^  Calvin  gave  his  version  in  a  long  letter  to  Bullinger,  Opera,  xv. 
676-685;  see  also  his  letters  to  Farel,  Ibid.,  617,  686,  693.  Colladon 
and  Beza  treat  it  from  a  strongly  Calvinistic  standpoint,  Lives,  Ibid., 
xxi.  79,  150.  The  defeated  party's  account  may  be  found  in  E.  Du- 
rant,  Les  relations  politiques  de  Geneve  avec  Berne,  pp.  142-146. 
Among  modern  discussions  may  be  mentioned,  Henry,  iii.  374-378; 
J.  B.  G.  Galiffe,  Qtielqiies  pages  d'histoire  exacte;  Roget,  iv.  245- 
336;  Kampschulte,  ii.  258-278;  Choisy,  pp.  174-186.  Roget  in  par- 
ticular gives  an  epitome  of  much  of  the  testimony  at  the  trials. 


1557]  Victory  over  Opponents  351 

thought-out  course  of  action  seems  to  have  ])ccn  de- 
cided upon.  The  supper  parties  Ijroke  up  early. 
Perrin  and  Vandel  had  gone  home  by  nine;  but  the 
main  body  of  the  guests  proceeded  through  the  city 
streets  in  more  or  less  menacing  and  disorderly  fashion. 
Arrived  opposite  the  house  of  Jean  Baudichon  de  la 
Maisonneuve,  one  of  the  partisans  of  Calvin  recently 
elected  to  the  Little  Council,  they  cried  out  against  the 
French  refugees,  and  Claude  Dumont,  servant  of  Jean 
Pernet,  Hke  Baudichon  one  of  the  new  Calvinist 
members  of  the  Little  Council,  was  hit  by  a  stone 
thrown  by  the  younger  of  the  Comparet  brothers, 
boatmen  who  had  been  of  the  party  at  the  taverns. 
Dumont  was  not  dangerously  wounded,  and  his  injury 
was  the  sole  physical  harm  done  in  the  whole  affair. 
His  cries  attracted  a  watchman,  and  also  brought 
Henri  Aubert,  one  of  the  syndics,  from  his  adjacent 
drug  shop.  Aubert  attempted  to  arrest  the  stone- 
thrower.  The  Comparet  brothers  resisted.  A  crowd 
soon  gathered.  Hot  words  were  exchanged  between 
the  two  factions.  Cries  of  "traitors,"  ''kill,  kill," 
"beat  down  the  French,"  and  the  Hke  resounded. 
Perrin  appeared  on  the  scene  and  attempted  to  take 
from  Aubert  his  baton,  significant  of  his  authority  as  a 
syndic,  and  repeated  his  effort  a  little  later  with  the 
syndic,  Pierre  Bonna. 

The  original  quarrel  spent  its  force  in  a  few  minutes; 
but  sinister  rumours  ran  through  the  city.  It  was 
declared  that  the  refugees  had  been  collecting  arms, 
and  that  they  were  assembling  in  numbers.  A  crowd 
of  Perrinists  gathered  in  the  Bourg-de-Four  quarter, 


352 


John  Calvin  [1853- 


of  which  Vandel  was  captain,  and  refused  to  disperse 
when  ordered  by  a  syndic,  only  yielding  when  Vandel 
joined  his  entreaties.  Many  threats  were  uttered 
against  the  refugees;  but  all  ended  before  mid- 
night. The  Comparets  were  arrested,  and  the  city 
was  once  more  in  peaceful  charge  of  its  sixteen  watch- 
men. 

Considered  in  itself  this  event  of  the  evening  of  May 
1 6th  was  a  very  trifling  affair;  but  it  might  easily  have 
led  to  a  bloody  riot.'  It  showed  a  disposition,  also,  to 
go  beyond  legal  means  in  expression  of  opposition 
toward  further  admissions  of  refugees  to  the  franchise. 
But  the  facts  speak  too  clearly  against  the  existence  of 
any  well-planned  conspiracy  to  overturn  the  Genevan 
government  to  make  that  interpretation  tenable. 
Perrin  and  Vandel  had  gone  home  quietly  and  early 
from  the  supper.  Vandel  helped  to  disperse  the  crowd. 
Of  any  attempt  to  master  the  city  by  attack  on  the  Little 
Council,  then  in  evening  session,  there  is  no  evidence. 
No  barricades  were  raised ;  no  organisation  from  a  mili- 
tary point  of  view  was  apparent.  But  to  Calvin  and 
his  friends  the  affair  took  the  proportions  of  a  formid- 
able attempt  upon  the  freedom  of  the  government. 
It  was,  they  declared,  a  revolutionary  conspiracy  aimed 
at  the  slaughter  of  the  French  refugees  and  the  over- 
throw of  the  four  syndics  and  their  obnoxious  associates 
in  the  Little  Council.^  There  is  no  reason  to  doubt 
that  Calvin  and  most  of  his  sympathisers  sincerely 


^  To  the  writer  the  interpretation  of  Choisy  seems  better  justified 
than  the  too  minimising  judgment  of  Roget. 

*  Calvin  to  Bullinger,  June  5,  1555,  Opera,  xv.  681. 


1557]         Victory  over  Opponents  353 

believed  that  the  affair  was  a  deep-laid  plot.  He 
thought  no  good  of  Perrin,  and  Vandel.'  Their  work 
was,  and  had  long  been,  in  his  judgment  one  hostile  to 
God.  But  it  w\as  a  ver>'  convenient  belief,  also,  in  the 
existing  political  situation.  If  the  Perrinists  were 
guilty  of  high  treason,  their  party  could  be  forever 
swept  from  power.  Contentions  in  a  small  city- republic 
like  Geneva  have  always  been  bitter.  The  victorious 
side  had  pushed  its  triumph  far  against  the  "Mame- 
louks"  and  "Artichauds,"  in  the  past.  It  was  to  show 
itself  yet  more  unsparing  now  to  the  Perrinists. 

The  brothers  Comparet  had  been  arrested  at  the 
time  of  the  disturbance,  and  a  general  investigation  of 
the  whole  affair  was  begun  by  the  Little  Council  the 
next  day, — Perrin  and  Vandel  taking  their  accustomed 
place  among  its  membership.  Many  witnesses  were 
heard,  and  the  case  was  prolonged.  On  the  23d, 
the  Council  ordered  further  arrests.  The  day  follow- 
ing the  Two  Hundred  met,  and  strengthened  by  its 
action,  the  Little  Council  now  decreed  the  arrest  of 
Perrin  and  others  of  his  party.  Fortunately  for  them, 
they  perceived  their  danger,  and  escaped  by  timely 
flight.  The  Bernese  authorities  made  representations 
in  their  behalf,  but  neither  Calvin  nor  his  friends  were 
likely  to  give  a  welcome  to  anything  that  Bern  had  to 
say.  On  June  3d,  Perrin  and  four  associates  were 
formally  sentenced  to  be  beheaded  and  quartered, — 
though  happily  for  them  not  in  Geneva's  power.  The 
Comparets,  who  were  in  the  city  prison,  were  now 


*  See  his  description  of  them  to  Bullinger,  July  15,  1555,  Ibid.,  677, 
6;8. 


354  John  Calvin  [1553- 

examined  with  cruel  torture  to  force  from  them  the 
acknowledgment  of  a  conspiracy.  The  efforts  were 
successful  while  the  pain  endured,  but  before  their 
execution,  on  June  27th,  they  denied  that  the  riot  had 
been  a  premeditated  act.  On  August  27th,  and  Sep- 
tember nth,  Claude  Geneve,  and  Francois  Daniel 
Berthelier,  Philibert's  younger  brother,  followed  them 
in  death  by  the  same  bloody  path.  Meanwhile,  on 
August  6th,  Pierre  Vandel  and  Philibert  Berthelier 
had  been  sentenced  in  their  absence  to  the  same 
fate,  and  others  involved  to  punishments  of  varying 
severity.  Even  the  wives  of  the  condemned  were 
banished  from  the  city;  and  at  a  meeting  of  the 
General  Assembly  on  September  6th,  not  only  was 
what  had  been  done  approved,  but  all  effort  to 
aid  the  return  of  the  fugitives  to  the  city  was 
forbidden  under  pain  of  death.  ^  The  Perrinist 
party,  as  a  poUtical  force  in  Geneva,  had  been  totally 
destroyed. 

Calvin's  share  in  these  events  was  not  official.  The 
trials  and  condemnations  were  the  work  of  the  civil 
authorities.  His  participation  in  the  struggle  was 
none  the  less  real.  He  visited  the  condemned  in  prison 
and  sought  to  secure  from  them  an  acknowledgment  of 
the  alleged  conspiracy.^  He  wrote  full  accounts  of  his 
version  of  the  event  to  Bullinger  for  influence  on  the 
governments  of  Zurich  and  Schaffhausen.^  He  ex- 
pressed satisfaction  that  torture  would  probably  wring 


1  opera,  xv.  752. 

2  Letter  to  Bullinger,  Opera,  xv.  831. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  677. 


1557]  Victory  over  Opponents  355 

from  two  of  the  prisoners  the  information  desired.'  In 
spite  of  his  aversion  to  cruel  deaths,  which  has  already 
been  noted,  he  saw  a  special  act  of  God's  judgment  in 
the  prolongation  of  the  sufferings  of  the  Comparets 
through  an  unskilfulness  on  the  part  of  the  executioner 
which  the  Genevan  government  rebuked  by  the  banish- 
ment of  that  official. ^^  He  felt  that  the  authorities  had 
been,  if  anything,  too  moflerate  in  their  action. ^  It  is 
Calvin  in  his  hardest  and  most  unsympathetic  mood 
that  here  expresses  himself;  but  it  should  be  remem- 
bered in  explanation  that  he  had  suffered  for  years  al- 
most to  the  shipwreck  of  a  work  which  he  believed  to 
be  even  more  that  of  God  than  his  own  at  the  hands  of 
the  party  the  destruction  of  which  he  now  witnessed 
with  such  satisfaction. 

To  Calvin  the  fall  of  the  Perrinists  brought  the  cessa- 
tion of  serious  opposition  in  Geneva.  Refugees  were 
freely  admitted  to  citizenship.  Before  February  i, 
1556,4  one  hundred  and  seventy  had  become  burghers, 
and  eighty-four  more  received  the  same  right  in  the 
next  twelve  months.^  The  Consistory  acted  with  a 
freedom  and  an  undisputed  authority  that  it  had  not 


1  To  Farel,  Opera,  xv.  693.  Eng.  trans.  Letters  of  John  Calvin, 
(PhiJa.)  Vol.  iii.  206.  "Before  ten  days  we  shall  see,  I  hope,  what 
the  rack  will  wring  from  them." 

2  Ibid.;    Opera,  xxi.  610. 

3  To  Bullinger,  Ibid.,  xv.  684. 

^I.e.  between  February  i,  1555,  and  February  i,  1556.  These 
are  Roget's  figures,  iv.  327,  v.  48;  Kampschulte,  ii.  285,  gives  some- 
what different  figures. 

5  In  1559  alone  1708  received  the  right  of  habitation;  between 
1549  and  1559  the  number  of  inhabitants  received  was  5017.  Dou- 
mergue,  iii.  11,  74. 


356  John  Calvin  [1553- 

yet  enjoyed.  Geneva  had  become,  not  the  city  of  Cal- 
vin's ideal, — that  it  was  never  to  be, — but  a  Puritan 
town,  rehgious,  conscientious,  strict  in  supervision  of 
conduct,  and  efficient  in  ecclesiastical  censures.  The 
work  to  which  he  had  set  his  hand  on  his  return  in 
1 541,  had  been  largely  accompHshed. 

Yet  Calvin's  hard-won  success  might  even  now 
have  been  largely  frustrated  had  it  not  been  for  un- 
anticipated poHtical  good-fortune.  Though  united  at 
home  to  a  degree  never  heretofore  reaHsed,  Geneva's 
external  relations,  notably  with  Bern,  had  never  been 
worse  than  at  the  fall  of  the  Perrinists.  To  Bern's 
shelter  of  Calvin's  critics  already  noted  was  now 
added  its  protection  of  the  banished  Perrinist  leaders. 
The  alHance  between  Geneva  and  this  powerful  and 
poHtically  valuable  neighbour  was  to  expire  by  limita- 
tion in  March,  1556.  Geneva  wished  it  renewed; 
but  Bern  refused  consent,  save  on  terms  humiHating 
to  the  Calvinist  government.  Geneva  therefore  dropped 
the  alliance.  Yet  the  situation  of  the  Httle  city,  without 
the  political  aid  of  Bern,  was  precarious  in  the  extreme; 
and  negotiations,  in  w^hich  Calvin  bore  his  full  share, 
were  carried  on  at  great  length  with  other  cantons 
and  with  Bern  for  a  restoration  of  the  confederacy. 
Bern's  terms  were  too  exacting  and  asked  too  much  in 
favour  of  the  Perrinists  for  Geneva  to  accept.  A  change 
came  unexpectedly,  however,  in  1557,  when  the  great 
victory  of  the  Spaniards  over  the  French  at  Saint- Quentin 
on  August  loth,  of  that  year,  won  under  the  generalship 
of  Emmanuel  Phihbert,  duke  of  Savoy,  made  him  the 
most  famous  commander  in  Europe,  lamed  the  power  of 


1557]  Victory  over  Opponents  357 

France,  and  rendered  it  possible  for  him  lo  lay  claim 
to  the  ancient  Savoyard  lands.  The  danger  both  to 
Bern  and  Geneva  was  real,  and  under  a  common 
sense  of  peril,  what  negotiations  had  thus  far  failed  to 
achieve  was  now  quickly  attained.  A  ''perpetual 
alliance"  in  which  Geneva  was  for  the  first  time  placed 
on  a  full  equality  with  Bern  was  effected  in  January, 
1558;  the  Perrinists  found  the  hopes  that  they  had 
built  on  Bernese  aid  utterly  frustrated,  and  the  results 
of  1555  were  made  permanent.  The  party  of  Calvin 
had  not  merely  won  victory  at  home,  but  had  secured 
that  victory  by  the  abatement  of  the  most  danger- 
ous external  perils  to  which  Geneva  w^as  exposed, 
and  the  attainment  of  a  political  independence 
greater  than  that  which  their  city  had  ever  before  en- 
joyed. 

These  months  of  anxious  negotiation  with  Bern 
were  a  time  of  severe  domestic  trial  for  Calvin.  The 
wife  of  his  beloved  brother,  Antoine,  long  suspected  of 
unworthy  conduct,  was  charged  with  adultery  committed 
with  Calvin's  hunchbacked  secretary-servant,  Pierre 
Dagnet,  while  all  were  inhabiting  Calvin's  house.  On 
January  7,  1557,  Calvin  and  his  brother  laid  the  case 
before  the  Consistory,  by  w^hich  it  w^as  referred  to  the 
Little  Council.  On  February  i6th,  the  crime  having 
been  proved,  the  Little  Council  gave  Antoine  a  divorce 
and  ordered  his  former  wife  to  leave  the  city.  The 
scandal  and  the  chagrin  of  the  reformer  were  great; 
but  the  case  seems  to  have  been  aggravated.  It  gave 
to  his  enemies,  however,  an  annoying  point  of  attack, 
especially    when    Antoine    Calvin     shocked    Roman 


358  John  Calvin  [1553-1557] 

Catholic  feeling  by  marrying  again  in  1560.^  Nor  was 
this  the  only  trial  occasioned  by  those  of  his  own  house- 
hold and  circle  that  Calvin  was  to  experience.  In 
1562,  his  step-daughter,  Judith,  fell  into  similar  dis- 
grace,— a  matter  which  Calvin  felt  so  keenly  that  he 
left  the  city  to  seek  the  soHtude  of  the  country  for  a 
few  days  after  the  misdeed  became  pubHc  knowledge.^ 


1  Calvin  to  Viret,  Opera,  xvi.  379;   Registres  du  Consistoire  and  du 
Conseil,  Ibid.,  xxi.  658-661;    Doumergue,  iii.  572. 

2  Calvin  to  Bullinger,  Opera,  xix.  327. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

CALVIN   CROWNS   HIS   GENEVAN   WORK,   1 559 

CALVIN'S  interest  in  Geneva  was  primarily  re- 
ligious. He  would  make  the  city  an  example 
of  a  Christian  community,  a  refuge  for  oppressed  Prot- 
estants, and  a  centre  of  influence  for  the  spread  of 
the  Evangelical  cause.  His  own  interpretation  of  his 
duties  was  broad,  and  he  was  keen  to  see  that  material 
well-being  and  education  were  essential  to  the  realisa- 
tion of  his  ideal.  A  well-ordered  population  should  be 
no  less  industrious  than  religious.  With  this  aim  in 
view,  as  early  as  December  29,  1544,  he  urged  the  Little 
Council  to  develop  the  weaving  industr)^  as  an  aid  to 
the  prosperity  of  the  city.  His  efforts  in  this  direction 
had  very  considerable  success  and  were  efficiently  aided 
by  the  character  and  thrift  of  many  of  the  refugees. 
Geneva  prospered  in  a  material  way  under  his 
influence.'  For  his  time,  Calvin  held  Hberal  views 
on  questions  of  trade.  Though  he  did  not  approve 
money-lending  as  an  exclusive  profession,  he  be- 
lieved the  receipt  of  a  fair  interest   on  the  use  of 


I  See  H.  Wiskemann,  Darstellung  der  in  Deutschland  zur  Zeit  der 
Reformation  herreschenden  national-okonomischen  Ansichten,  in  the 
Schriften  der  J ahlonowkischen  Gesellschajt,  for  1861,  pp.  79-87.  Less 
value,  but  still  a  decided  significance,  is  attached  to  this  work  by 
Kampschulte,  i.  429,  430.    See  Schaff,  vii.  516. 

[359] 


360  John  Calvin  [1558- 

money  not  only  unforbidden  by  Scripture,  but  wise 
and  just.'  This  growth  in  popular  well-being  is  a 
factor  to  be  taken  into  account  in  explaining  the  in- 
creasing favour  with  which  his  system  was  regarded 
by  the  inhabitants  of  the  city. 

Calvin's  concern  for  Geneva  was,  however,  far 
more  spiritual  and  intellectual  than  material.  In 
his  estimate,  religion  and  education  were  closely 
associated.  A  true  faith  must  be  intelligent.  The 
School  and  the  Church  are  necessary  and  mutually 
supplementary  agencies;  or  rather  the  School  is 
an  essential  part  of  any  effective  Church  organisa- 
tion. Intelligence,  not  ignorance,  was  to  Calvin 
the  mother  of  piety;  and  no  other  conception  charac- 
teristic of  him  was  more  fully  impressed  on  the 
churches  which  came  under  his  spiritual  influence. 
France,  Holland,  Scotland,  Puritan  England,  and  New 
England  were  all  to  feel  its  power  and  to  draw  from 
it  lasting  benefit. 

Calvin  had  long  desired  the  estabhshment  of  a 
really  efficient  school  at  Geneva,  effective  in  its 
methods,  especially  in  instilHng  a  fundamental  basis 
of  philological  learning,  and  having  as  its  crown 
instruction  in  theology,  by  which  pastors  could  be 
trained  for  the  service  of  the  Church.  His  ideal 
was  undoubtedly  the  school  system  of  Strassburg, 
made  famihar  to  him  by  participation  in  its  in- 
struction during  his  sojourn  in  that  city.  But 
circumstances    had    long    been    unfavourable    to   its 


^  Opera,  xa.  245-249. 


I55Q]  Crowns  Genevan  Work  361 

realisation.^  Given  a  prominent  place  in  the  Ordon- 
nances  of  1541,  the  school  was,  nevertheless,  long 
the  weak  point  of  Calvin's  structure.  Mention  has  al- 
ready been  made  of  the  vain  efforts  to  secure  Mathurin 
Cordier  for  its  service,  and  of  the  unhappy  breach  with 
its  head-master,  Castellio.^  The  school  continued; 
but  so  inefficient  was  its  instruction,  that  Genevan 
parents  who  desired  a  thorough  education  for  their 
sons,  had  to  send  them  to  other  cities.^  Theology  was, 
indeed,  vigorously  taught  by  Calvin  himself  throughout 
his  Genevan  ministry. 

On  the  fall  of  the  Perrinists,  and  especially  after 
Calvin  had  renewed  old  associations  by  a  brief  visit  to 
Strassburg  in  1556,  he  set  his  hand  earnestly  to  the 
regeneration  of  the  Genevan  school  system.  The  con- 
flict with  Bern  delayed  the  action  then  begun,  but  on 
its  successful  conclusion,  in  January,  1558,  the  Little 
Council,  at  Calvin's  instigation,  ordered  the  selection 
of  a  site  for  a  ''College."  "*  The  buildings,  which 
have  survived  in  large  part  to  the  present  day,  were 
begun  in  the  follow^ing  April,  and  Calvin  undertook 
to  enlist  competent  teachers.  Geneva  w^as  poor,  and 
Calvin  asked  for  gifts  and  legacies,  with  such  success 


^  An  admirable  account  of  Calvin's  work  for  Genevan  education  is 
that  of  Charles  Borgeaud,  Histoire  de  VUniversite  de  Geneve^ 
Geneva,  1900,  i.  1-83.  Roget,  v.  225-248;  and  Kampschulte,  ii. 
310-342,  have  much  of  value.     See,  also,  Doumerguc,  iii.  372-392. 

2  Ante,  p.  289. 

3Beza's  introduction  to  the  Laws  of  the  Genevan  Academy,  1559, 
Opera,  xa.  66;    Borgeaud,  i.  i. 

4  Registres  du  Coftseil,  quoted  by  Roget,  v.  227;  see,  also,  Borgeaud, 
i-34,  35- 


362  John  Calvin  [1558- 

that  the  current  of  beneficence  thus  started  brought 
more  than  five  hundred  gifts  to  the  new  foundation 
in  the  course  of  the  next  sixty  years. ^  Yet  it  was  im- 
possible, at  first,  to  offer  an  adequate  compensation  to 
the  instructors  invited;  and  Calvin's  efforts  were  ham- 
pered by  this  and  other  difficulties,  till  an  unexpected 
controversy  at  Lausanne  led  to  the  immediate  reaHsa- 
tion  of  his  purpose. 

A  school  at  Lausanne,  begun  by  the  theological 
lectures  of  Viret  in  1537,  had  been  developed  into  a 
regular  foundation  by  the  Bernese  authorities  in  1540.^ 
There  Mathurin  Cordier  had  taught  since  1545,  but 
was  now  supplemented  by  reason  of  old  age,  by  Francois 
Berauld,  a  native  of  Orleans.  With  them  Calvin's 
friend  and  disciple,  Theodore  Beza,  had  been  associated 
as  professor  of  Greek  since  1 549,  and  Jean  Tagaut,  like 
Beza  a  French  refugee,  as  professor  of  ''arts,"  his 
specialty  being  mathematics,  since  1557.  The  school 
was  flourishing  and  highly  respected;  and  for  some 
years  it  constituted  the  only  seat  of  advanced  instruction 
for  French-speaking  Protestants.  The  ministers  and 
teachers  at  Lausanne,  notably  Viret  and  Beza,  fully 
sympathised  with  Calvin's  ecclesiastical  discipline; 
and,  in  March,  1558,  they  tried  to  introduce  there  his 
independent  right  of  excommunication.  The  con- 
sequences were  disastrous.^     The  Bernese  government, 


^  Borgeaud,  i.  35,  36.  1074  florins  were  received  in  legacies  in 
1559;  certain  fines  were  also  so  disposed,  Roget,  v.  232,  233;  10,024 
florins  are  said  to  have  been  collected  in  six  months,  Kampschulte, 
ii.  314. 

2  Borgeaud,  i.  38-42. 

3  Roget,  V.  207-224. 


1559]  Crowns  Genevan  Work  363 

under  which  Lausanne  stood,  would  have  none  of  it. 
Beza  foresaw  the  result  of  the  storm,  and  betook  himself 
to  Geneva  in  September  of  the  same  year.  Here  he 
was  warmly  welcomed,  nominated  to  the  Genevan 
ministry  by  the  Venerable  Compagnie,  and  designated 
by  it  and  the  Little  Council  as  professor  of  Greek  in 
the  College  to  be.  Thenceforth  Beza  was  to  be  Calvin's 
right-hand  man.  In  mental  equipment  very  hke  Calvin, 
though  without  his  originaHty,  Beza  was  devoted  to 
Calvin's  theology,  discipHne,  and  ideals,  and  bound  to 
him  by  ties  of  intimate  friendship.  No  master  ever  had 
a  more  apt  or  admiring  disciple,  and  it  was  Beza  who 
for  more  than  forty  years  after  Calvin's  death  was  to 
carry  on  Calvin's  work  in  the  path  and  with  much  of  the 
success  of  the  older  Genevan  reformer.  Viret,  aided 
by  his  pastoral  associates,  maintained  the  struggle 
at  Lausanne  a  few  months  longer;  but,  in  January, 
1559,  he  was  deposed  from  his  long  pastorate,  and 
now  came  with  many  of  his  companions  in  the 
ministry  and  the  school  to  the  welcome  shelter  of 
Geneva.  For  the  next  three  years,  Viret  was  a 
Genevan  minister. 

By  this  exodus  from  Lausanne  Calvin  was  provided 
with  instructors  for  his  Academy.  On  nomination  of 
the  Venerable  Conipagnie,  for,  in  accordance  with  the 
principles  enunciated  in  the  Ordonnances  of  1542, 
Calvin  would  have  the  school  under  ecclesiastical  con- 
trol, he  presented  to  the  Little  Council,  on  May  22, 
1559,  the  names  of  Francois  Berauld  as  professor  of 
Greek,  and  of  Jean  Tagaut  as  professor  of  philosophy.^ 


Registres  du  Conseil,  Iv.  48;    Opera,  xxi.  716. 


364  John  Calvin  [1558- 

With  them  was  joined  a  brilliant  teacher,  once  the  tutor 
in  French  of  the  Princess  Elizabeth,  now  Queen  of 
England,  Antoine  Chevalier,  as  professor  of  Hebrew. 
To  Beza  was  given  the  rectorship  of  the  school  instead 
of  the  chair  of  Greek  as  originally  intended.  These 
teachers  were,  like  Calvin,  all  Frenchmen,  and  all  had 
been  at  Lausanne,  though  Chevalier  only  for  a  brief 
time,  and  unlike  the  others  not  as  an  instructor  in  its 
school.  Below  them,  as  teachers  in  the  secondary 
department,  seven  regents  of  classes  were  appointed, 
of  whom  Jean  Randon,  the  head -master,  had  been  of 
the  school  at  Lausanne.  Thus  equipped,  the  Academy 
was  formally  inaugurated  under  the  guidance  of  Calvin, 
and  with  an  address  by  Beza,  in  the  presence  of  the 
syndics,  counsellors,  ministers,  and  other  dignitaries 
of  the  little  city,  gathered  in  Saint-Pierre  on  June  5, 

1559- 
On  May  2 2d,  Calvin  had  presented,  and  the  Little 

Council   had   approved,    the   translation   into  French 

of  the  constitution  of  the  Academy, — the  Leges  Aca- 

demiae  Genevensis ."■    In  all  probability  it  was  his  work.* 

Built  in  large  part  on  what  had  been  achieved  at  Strass- 


1  Opera,  xxi.  716;  text  in  Opera,  xa.  65-90. 

2  Always  ascribed  to  him  by  tradition,  his  authorship  was  denied 
by  Berthault  in  his  Mathurin  Cordier,  Paris,  1876;  and  Bourchenin 
in  his  Etude  sur  les  academies  protesta?ites,  Paris,  1882,  p.  62,  in  favour 
of  Beza  and  Cordier.  Borgeaud  has  repHed  with  effect,  even  if  un- 
able to  furnish  an  absolute  demonstration  of  Calvin's  authorship,  i. 
45-47.  Cordier,  then  in  his  eightieth  year,  came  with  the  exodus 
from  Lausanne  to  Geneva,  and  was  given  a  lodging  in  one  of  the 
college  buildings  in  recognition  of  his  deserts.  He  was  apparently  in 
feeble  health. 


1559]  Crowns  Genevan  Work  365 

burg  by  Johann  Sturm,  and  by  Claude  Baducl  al 
Nimes,'  the  Genevan  academical  constitution  gave 
Greek  an  equal  place  with  Latin  in  the  curriculum,  and 
emphasised  even  more  than  the  earher  educational  re- 
formers the  value  of  thorough  preparatory  linguistic 
studies.  The  institution  was  divided  into  what  would 
now  be  described  as  a  department  of  primary  and  sec- 
ondary education,  and  a  course  of  higher  studies  of 
university  grade.  The  former,  the  scholia  privata  or 
gymnasium,  was  strictly  graded  into  seven  classes,  each 
under  a  regent.  In  each  class  the  scholars  were  grouped 
in  tens  according  to  progress  and  abilities.  The  seventh 
or  lowest  class  was  taught  to  read  in  French  and  Latin. 
Grammar  and  exercises  filled  the  next  two  years.  With 
the  fourth  class  Greek  was  begun;  and  with  the  second 
the  elements  of  dialectics.  The  scholar  finished  his 
preliminary  course  in  the  first  class,  with  a  considerable 
command  of  Latin  and  Greek,  some  knowledge  of 
their  literatures,  and  a  moderate  acquaintance  with  logic. 
The  higher  instruction  was  given  in  the  scholia  publica 
by  ''pubHc  professors"  of  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Phi- 
losophy, or  "Arts,"  and  by  Calvin  and  Beza  as  instruc- 
tors in  theology  though  without  professorial  title. 
Here  there  were  no  classes,  the  students  being  received 
by  inscription  and  signature  of  a  confession  of  faith. 
They  were  allowed  comparative  freedom,  as  in  a  modern 
German  university.  Instruction  was  free.  While  an 
annual  pubHc  promotion  was  appointed  for  the  scholia 
privata,  the  celebration  of  which  on  May  ist  became 
an  important  festival,  Calvin  made  no  provision  for 


See  Borgeaud,  i.  42-45. 


366  John  Calvin  [1558- 

the  bestowment  of  degrees,  nor  did  the  magistrates  feel 
such  powers  to  be  within  their  competence.  The  scholar 
of  the  scholia  publica  had  to  content  himself  with  a 
certificate  of  attendance  and  character,  to  which  the 
reputation  of  the  Academy  soon  gave  widely  recognised 
value. ^ 

Calvin's  object  in  founding  the  Academy  of  Geneva 
was  twofold.  He  would  give  opportunity  for  instruc- 
tion to  the  children  of  the  city,  and  provide  training  in 
theology  for  students  from  abroad.  He  would  make 
Geneva  the  theological  seminary  of  Reformed  Protes- 
tantism. From  the  first,  the  addition  of  courses  in  law 
and  medicine  were  contemplated ;  but  this  enlargement 
was  not  effected  till  after  Calvin's  death.  Its  success, 
in  point  of  attendance,  was  immediately  assured.  At 
Calvin's  death,  twelve  hundred  scholars  were  enrolled 
in  the  scholia  privata,  and  three  hundred  in  the  scholia 
publica.''  The  vast  majority  of  those  in  the  higher 
studies  were  foreigners,  attracted  to  Geneva  by  the 
fame  of  the  school  as  a  fountain  of  Protestant  theology. 
Within  three  years  of  its  opening,  it  numbered  among 
its  scholars  such  names  as  those  of  Kaspar  Olevianus,  to 
be  one  of  the  two  authors  of  the  Heidelberg  Catechism; 
of  Philippe  de  Marnix  de  Saint-Aldegonde,  of  Nether- 
landish memory;  of  Florent  Chrestien,  tutor  of  Henry 
IV.  of  France;  of  Thomas  Bodley,  the  founder  of  the 
library  known  by  his  name  at  the  EngHsh  Oxford;  of 
Francis  Junius,  later  to  be  the  ornament  of  the  Uni- 
versity  of    Leyden.     France,  England,  Scotland,  the 

1  Borgeaud,  i.  160-165. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  63. 


IS59]  Crowns  Genevan  Work  367 

Netherlands,  Germany,  Italy,  and  Switzerland  had  ihcir 
representatives;  but  France  most  of  all/ 

The  Academy  was  the  crown  of  Calvin's  Genevan 
work.  It  was  a  fmal  step  toward  the  realisation  of  his 
ideal  of  a  Christian  commonwealth.  To  pure  preaching 
and  thorough  discipline  he  now  added  religious  educa- 
tion. His  disciples  should  not  merely  have  the  Evan- 
geHcal  faith,  they  should  be  able  to  give  a  reason  worthy 
of  the  respect  of  every  man  of  learning  for  the  faith 
that  was  in  them.  Powerful  as  was  the  moulding  force 
of  the  Academy  upon  Geneva,  its  influence  was  even 
greater  outside  the  city's  walls,  for  the  students  that  it 
trained  and  inspired  with  the  ideal  that  it  championed, 
and  the  example  that  it  presented,  spread  its  spirit  to 
France,  the  Netherlands,  Scotland,  and  England.  It 
sent  out  scores  of  earnest  disciples,  convinced  that 
Calvin's  message  was  that  of  God,  and  eager  to  fight 
and  to  suffer  for  the  faith  that  it  taught.  It  was  the 
mother  of  the  Huguenot  seminaries.  No  other  force 
was  so  powerful  in  disseminating  Calvin's  ideals,  save 
his  Institutes,  and  no  school  in  all  Protestantism  ranked 
higher  in  pubHc  repute  for  a  century  after  his  death. 
Its  honourable  history  has  continued  to  the  present  day, 
when  it  has  long  since  become  in  name,  as  it  was  always, 
one  may  say,  in  fact,  the  University  of  Geneva. 

While  these  negotiations  which  resulted  in  the  foun- 
dation of  the  Academy  were  in  progress,  Calvin  was 
suffering  from  serious  ill-health.  His  constitution,  long 
racked  by  over-work,  anxiety,  and  excessive  hours  of 


I  Borgeaud,    i.   pp.  55-63.       Compare    Kampschulte's   interesting 
discussion,  ii.  333-342. 


368  John  Calvin  [1558- 

study,  was  breaking,  and  he  languished  from  September, 
1558,  till  the  spring  following,  under  attacks  of  the  inter- 
mittent disease  then  known  as  quartan  fever.  The 
symptoms  would  point  to  severe  nervous  dyspepsia. 
From  this  illness  his  health  was  never  fully  restored. 
Always  extremely  temperate  in  food  and  drink,  from 
now  onward  he  took  regularly  but  one  meal  a  day,  and 
frequently  in  the  distress  of  his  attacks  would  pass  forty- 
eight  hours  without  food.'  Much  of  his  time  from  this 
illness  onward  he  was  compelled  to  spend  in  bed,  going 
out  to  preach  or  lecture,  and  returning  to  his  couch  to 
study,  to  dictate  his  letters,  and  to  compose  his  books. 
It  is  illustrative  at  once  of  Calvin's  facility  in  the 
accompUshment  of  scholarly  work,  and  of  his  firmness 
of  will,  that  during  this  illness  of  the  autumn  and  winter 
of  1558-59,  besides  maintaining  his  enormous  corre- 
spondence, and  revising  his  commentary  on  Isaiah,  he 
brought  to  its  classic  completion  the  perfected  edition 
of  the  Institutes.  This,  in  itself,  was  a  scholarly  task  of 
great  labour;  and  its  accomplishment  under  circum- 
stances of  illness  is  doubly  remarkable.  The  Institutes 
had  now  attained  their  growth.  Issued  in  1536,  as  has 
been  seen,  in  six  considerable  chapters,  they  revealed 
Calvin's  full  theological  development  in  the  edition  of 
1539;  but  in  that  of  1559,  under  consideration,  they 
exhibited  the  experienced  teacher  and  the  developed 
master  of  logical  order.  It  was,  as  the  title-page  de- 
clared: "almost  a  new  work."  As  now  presented,  the 
Institutes  followed  the  sequence  of  the  Apostles'  Creed, 
and  had  grown  to  a  compass  of  four  books,  in  eighty 


I  Colladon,  Lije,  Opera,  xxi.  87-89,  109. 


issy]  Crowns  Genevan  Work  369 

chapters,  though  these  chapters  average  much  less  in 
length  than  those  of  the  original  edition.'  Designed  for 
popular  reading,  as  well  as  for  scholars,  the  (jualities  of 
vivacity  and  clearness  conspicuously  mark  this  master- 
piece of  Reformation  theology.  From  its  i)ublication, 
this  edition  of  the  Institutes  became  the  standard  pres- 
entation of  the  Calvinistic  system.  Its  circulation  was 
European.  Before  the  definitive  Latin  edition  of  1559, 
the  Institutes  had  been  repeatedly  pubhshed  in  French, 
beginning  in  1541,  and  once,  in  1557,  in  Itahan.  In  its 
final  form,  it  appeared  in  French  in  1560;  in  Dutch, 
during  the  same  year;  in  EngHsh,  in  1561 ;  in  German, 
in  1572;  and  in  Spanish,  in  1597.  Before  the  close  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  to  speak  of  no  other  versions, 
eight  editions  of  the  entire  work  had  been  issued  in 
EngHsh,  and  abridgments  in  that  tongue  had  been 
four  times  pubhshed. 

Mention  was  made,  in  speaking  of  Calvin's  labours 
during  this  illness,  of  his  commentary  on  Isaiah,  and 
earlier  exegetical  pubhcations  have  been  enumerated.^ 
These  series  of  Bible  expositions  grew  out  of  Calvin's 
theological  lectures,  which  took  largely  the  form  of 
Scriptural  interpretation,  and  their  pubhcation  contin- 
ued as  long  as  he  lived.  His  commentary  on  Genesis 
and  on  the  Canonical  Epistles  appeared  in  1554,  his 
Harmony  of  the  Gospels  in  1555,  the  year  1557  saw 
his  exposition  of  the  Psalms  and  of  Isaiah;  the  Minor 
Prophets  w^ere  explained  in  1559,  Daniel  in  1561,  the 

'^  Text  in  Opera,  ii.  That  of  the  French  edition,  published  in  1560, 
is  in  vols.  iii.  and  iv.  The  best  English  edition  is  that  translated  by 
Beveridge,  3  vols.,  Edinburgh,  1845-46. 

*  Ante,  p.  324. 


37©  John  Calvin  [1558- 

whole  Pentateuch,  Jeremiah,  and  Lamentations  in 
1563,  and  Joshua  in  1564.  It  was  not  merely  very- 
extensive  and  rapid  work  that  Calvin  accomplished 
as  a  commentator.'  It  was  the  best  work  of  BibUcal 
interpretation  that  the  Reformation  age  produced. 
Brief,  clear,  of  great  spiritual  insight,  and  resting  on 
the  basis  of  ample  philological  knowledge  and  of  a 
sound  and  practical  judgment,  he  held  that  each 
Scripture  passage  must  be  understood  as  containing 
a  definite  message,  and  not  a  threefold  or  fourfold 
meaning  as  the  early  Church  and  the  Middle  Ages  had 
believed.  That  meaning  was  to  be  ascertained  by 
natural  grammatical  and  historical  interpretation. 
The  modem  conceptions  of  a  progressive  revelation, 
and  of  human  admixture  of  error,  to  say  nothing  of  such 
views  as  regard  the  Bible  as  a  literature  embodying  the 
religious  conceptions  of  many  ages  and  of  a  variety  of 
writers,  were  of  course  unknown  to  him.  The  language 
might  be  the  humble  speech  of  a  Paul,  but  the  thoughts 
were  those  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Yet,  for  his  time,  Calvin 
was  remarkably  fresh,  translucent,  and  sensible  in  his 
comments,  and  the  series  of  expositions  from  his  Ro- 
mans of  1540,  to  his  Joshua  of  1564,  were  second  only  to 
his  Institutes  and  the  Academy  in  the  propagation  of 
his  theology.^ 

The  time  of  the  foundation  of  the  Academy  was  not 
only  one  of  physical  distress  to  Calvin,  it  was  a  period  of 
anxiety  to  the  entire  Genevan  community,  in  which  the 

1  These  commentaries  fill  nearly  all  of  vols,  xxiii.-lv.  of  the  Opera. 

2  Calvin's  services  as  a  commentator  are  well  treated  by  Schafif, 
vii.  524-538,  where  references  to  the  further  literature  of  the  subject 
are  given. 


1559]  Crowns  Genevan  Work  371 

whole  existence  of  the  Reform  movement  there  and  the 
independence  of  the  city  seemed  at  stake.  On  April 
3,  1559,  the  struggle  between  Henry  11.  of  France  and 
Philip  II.  of  Spain  was  brought  to  a  close  by  the  peace 
of  Cateau  Cambr^sis.  As  had  been  foreshadowed  by 
the  Spanish  victory  at  Saint-Quentin,  the  results  of  the 
struggle  had  been  decidedly  favourable  to  Spain;  and 
its  ruler  regarded  the  suppression  of  Protestantism  as 
his  God-appointed  task.  It  was  evident  to  all  that  the 
close  of  the  armed  contests  between  the  two  great 
Catholic  powers  would  endanger  the  status  of  Protes- 
tantism; and  the  thirty  years  from  1559  to  1589  were  to 
be  the  darkest  period  of  the  EvangeKcal  cause.  For 
Geneva  the  situation  brought  about  by  the  peace  was 
alarming.  Not  only  was  the  city  justly  regarded  as  the 
stronghold  of  French-speaking  Protestantism,  Calvin 
was,  as  there  will  be  occasion  to  see  in  the  next  chapter, 
the  real,  though  unofficial,  head  of  the  French  Evan- 
gelical party.  His  pupils  were  its  ministers,  his  advice 
and  exhortation  had  for  years  encouraged  its  struggles, 
his  labours  had  made  Geneva  an  asylum  for  its  refugees. 
To  crush  Geneva  would  be  to  deal  a  blow  to  all  French 
Protestantism,  and  as  the  event  proved,  though  it  was 
not  then  so  evident,  to  that  of  the  Netherlands  also. 
The  instrument  seemed  at  hand.  The  victor  of  Saint- 
Quentin,  Emmanuel  Philibert,  the  young  and  able  duke 
of  Savoy,  was  restored  by  the  peace  to  the  territories 
which  France  had  taken  from  his  house.'     It  would  be 


I  To  save  French  pride,  this  restoration  was  nominally  subject  to 
legal  adjudication  within  three  years.  E.  Armstrong,  in  The  Cam- 
bridge Modern  History,  iii.  400. 


372  John  Calvin  [1558- 

natural  that  he  should  seek  also  to  gain  what  Bern  had 
seized,  and  Geneva  itself,  in  which  his  ancestors  had 
had  so  large  a  stake;  and  it  was  to  be  anticipated,  too, 
that  in  this,  or  in  some  other,  effort  against  its  freedom 
Geneva  would  find  itself  confronted  by  the  power  of 
Spain  and  of  France,  eager  to  end  an  independence  so 
obnoxious  to  the  Roman  cause. 

Geneva  was  in  anxiety,  but  not  in  panic/  On  news 
of  the  peace,  fortification  was  begun  at  once,  and  the 
month  of  the  opening  of  the  Academy  saw,  as  Haller 
wrote  from  Bern  to  Bulhnger,  on  June  22d,  all  the  in- 
habitants, ^'magistrates,  ministers,  nobles,  artisans," 
working  feverishly  on  its  defences.^  It  was  an  ex- 
hibition of  courage  and  firmness  worthy  of  the  Httle 
city  which  Calvin  led.  Yet,  fortunately  for  Geneva,  its 
guns  and  its  earthworks  were  not  to  be  put  to  the  test. 
Though  Pope  Paul  IV.  urged  the  Kings  of  Spain  and 
France  "to  smother  the  snake  in  its  nest,"  poHtical 
and'  mihtary  jealousies  prevented  action  lest  one  or 
the  other  sovereign  gain  the  profit. ^  Geneva's  chief 
deliverance  came,  however,  through  the  unexpected 
death  of  Henry  II.,  on  July  10,  1559,  from  wounds  re- 
ceived in  a  tournament.  Though  not  immediately  re- 
lieved from  its  fears,  the  turmoils  and  party  divisions  in 
France,  begun  with  the  brief  reign  of  Francis  II.,  and 
to  lead,  in  1562,  to  the  Huguenot  wars,  rendered  Geneva 
comparatively  secure  from  any  attack  in  which  France  or 


1  Roget,  V.  249-266. 

2  Quoted,  Ibid.,  p.  254. 

3  Roget,  Ibid.,  pp.  255,  256,  ascribes  the  unwillingness  to  Spain; 
Armstrong,  op.  cit.,  p.  405,  to  France. 


1559]         Crowns  Genevan  Work  373 

Spain  should  have  a  part.  Though  a  fresh  danger, 
that  was  long  to  continue,  was  created  when  luTimanuel 
Philibert,  after  long  negotiations,  secured  for  tlie  Savoy- 
ard House  the  restoration  in  1 564,  the  year  of  Calvin's 
death,  of  the  territories  on  the  south  shore  of  Lake 
Geneva  which  Bern  had  conquered  in  1536,*  Geneva's 
poHtical  situation  was  never  again  so  perilous  during 
Calvin's  life,  as  in  1559, — while  the  intellectual  influ- 
ence of  the  city  was  vastly  augmented  from  that  date. 
It  was  indeed  an  advance-post  of  Protestantism,  thrust 
into  the  midst  of  perils;  but  the  foundation  of  the  Acad- 
emy was  its  noblest  answer  to  its  enemies. 

The  relations  of  the  civil  authorities  of  Geneva,  now 
composed  almost  exclusively  of  Calvin's  friends  and 
admirers,  took  on  increasingly  an  aspect  of  respectful 
reverence;  but  Calvin  was  indisposed  to  profit  person- 
ally by  their  bounty.  At  the  meeting  of  the  Little 
Council,  on  May  22,  1559,  at  which  he  presented  the 
statutes  of  the  Academy  about  to  be,  he  thanked  the 
magistrates  most  heartily  for  their  "great  benefits" 
during  his  recent  illness,  but  begged  them  not  to  carry 
out  their  purpose  of  paying  the  apothecary  for  the 
medicines  prescribed.  The  Council  voted  "to  remon- 
strate with  him,"  requesting  him  to  take  it  in  good  part, 
because  it  "wished  to  do  that  and  more,  if  there  was 
need."  ^  Again,  in  June,  1563,  the  Little  Council  made 
a  donation  of  twenty-five  ecus  to  Calvin,  through  his 
brother,  Antoine,  to  defray  the  cost  of  medicines  and 
other  incidents  of  illness.     Calvin  promptly  returned 


Armstrong,  p.  405  * 

Registres  du  Conseil,  Iv.  49;    Opera,  xxi.  716. 


374  John  Calvin  [1558- 

the  gift  with  an  expression  of  his  grateful  appreciation; 
and  once  more  the  Council  asked  him  "to  keep  it  and 
to  spare  nothing."  ^  In  his  last  illness,  in  March,  1564, 
the  Council  repeated  the  gift,  only  to  have  Calvin  again 
decline  it,  this  time  with  the  message  "that  he  felt 
scruples  about  receiving  his  ordinary  salary  when  he 
could  not  serve."  ^  Calvin  was  no  self-seeker  in  financial 
relations,  or  exploiter  of  the  bounty  of  others,  even  when 
freely  offered ;  and  his  reserve  in  these  cases  is  the  more 
creditable  since  the  gifts  proposed  were  from  the  public 
treasury  of  a  city  which  he  had  reason  to  feel  that  he 
had  greatly  served. 

These  endeavours  to  ease  Calvin's  increasing  physi- 
cal disabilities  by  pecuniary  assistance  were  only  a  part 
of  the  expressions  of  governmental  goodwill.  On  De- 
cember 25,  1559,  the  Little  Council  requested  him  to 
become  a  burgher,  an  honourable  invitation  which  he 
gratefully  accepted  .^  In  May  following,  it  voted  him  a 
cask  of  the  best  white  wine  to  be  found,  "because  in- 
debted by  reason  of  the  great  labours  which  he  under- 
takes for  the  government ";4  and  in  his  last  illness, 
besides  the  money  gift  already  mentioned,  it  ordered 
prayers  in  his  behalf,  directed  the  syndics  to  "visit  him 
often";  and,  finally,  went  in  a  body  to  his  sick-room, 
on  April  27,  1564,  "to  hear  what  he  should  wish  to  say, 
and  afterwards  to  express  to  him  all  warm  affection  and 
friendship,  even  to  his  relatives  after  his  decease,  by 


^  Registres  du  Conseil,  Iviii.  67,  68;  Opera,  xxi.  804. 

2  Ibid.,  lix.  18,  20;    xxi.  813. 

3  Ibid.,  Iv.  163;   xxi.  725. 
^Ibid.,  Ivi.  38;   xxi.  731. 


1559]  Crowns  Genevan  Work  375 

reason  of  the  acceptable  services  which  he  has  per- 
formed for  the  government,  and  because  he  has  ac- 
quitted himself  faithfully  in  his  office." '  The  message 
thus  tersely  indicated  in  the  arid  pages  of  the  pubHc 
records  must  have  been  grateful  to  Calvin's  heart,  and 
must  have  sweetened  with  a  sense  of  public  recognition 
achieved  the  recollection  of  many  a  bitter  struggle  and 
many  a  rebuff  from  the  government  which  then  did 
him  affectionate  reverence. 


Registres  du  Conseil,  lix.  38;   Opera,  xxi.  815. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

CALVIN'S  INFLUENCE   OUTSIDE   OF   GENEVA 

UNREMITTING  as  was  Calvin's  struggle  to  make 
of  Geneva  a  city  answering  to  his  religious  ideal, 
he  had  always  more  than  the  reformation  of  that  city 
in  view.     He  would  transform  it  into  a  model  Christian 
community,  he  would  render  it  an  asylum  for  all  who 
were  oppressed  in  the  profession  of  their  Evangelical 
faith;  and,  above  all,  by  example,  by  hospitality,  by 
training,  by  the  sending  forth  of  pastors,  and  by  the 
influence  of  its  ministers   and   magistrates  he  would 
make  Geneva  a  power  for  the  spread  of  the  Reforma- 
tion.    In  all  this  effort  he  largely  succeeded.     Geneva 
was  never  to  Calvin  an  end  in  itself.     It  was  a  means 
by  which  the    conception   he   held  of  the  Protestant 
faith  should  be  advanced  far  beyond  even  the  bounds 
of  a  single  nation  throughout  western  Europe.     That 
non-German  Protestantism,  in   spite  of   diversities  of 
races,  of  governments,  and  of  intellectual  developments, 
attained  essential  doctrinal  unity,   and  so  largely  ex- 
hibited a  common    type    of    religious    life,  was    pri- 
marily due  to  Calvin's   forceful  impress.      Where,  as 
in  a  certain    section  of  the  English  Reformed  party, 
other    influences    prevented    the    full   dominance     of 
Calvin's    ideals,    a    divergent    type    of    Protestantism 
was  manifest;    yet  even  AngHcanism  felt   the  mould- 
ing  touch   of    Calvin's   doctrinal    system    for   half    a 

[376] 


Influence  Outside  of  Geneva       377 

century  after  his  death;  and  struggled  long  for  the 
mastery  of  England  with  a  Puritanism  that  was 
almost  wholly  his  own.  Elsewhere  in  western  Europe 
no  influence  was  to  be  compared,  during  the  lat- 
ter half  of  the  sixteenth  century  with  that  of 
Calvin.^ 

The  prime  reason  for  this  influence  was  Calvin's 
transcendent  ability  as  a  theologian.  The  propagat- 
ing and  unifying  power  of  the  Institutes  was  due  to  the 
fact  that  in  them  the  Reformation  epoch  received  its 
clearest,  most  logical,  and  most  characteristic  presenta- 
tion of  Christian  truth.  However  inadequate  it  may 
appear  to  our  own  age,  there  can  be  no  question  that, 
more  than  any  other  work,  it  seemed  to  the  sixteenth 
century  the  ablest  answer  to  Roman  claims,  and  the 
most  complete  presentation  of  the  Gospel.  Second 
only  to  the  impressive  power  of  the  Institutes  was  the 
influence  of  the  apparent  realisation  of  a  reformed 
Christian  community  in  Geneva.  Though  to  us  Cal- 
vin's system  gives  the  conviction  of  unendurable  spiritual 
tyranny,  there  were  thousands  of  his  religious  and  ear- 
nest contemporaries  to  whom  it  seemed,  as  it  did  to 
John  Knox,  "the  most  perfect  school  of  Christ  that 
ever  was  on  the  earth  since  the  days  of  the  Apostles."^ 
But,  beside  these  gifts,  as  a  theologian  and  an  organ- 
iser, Calvin  had  a  statesmanHke  breadth  of  view  which 
enabled  him  better  than  any  other  reformer  to  grasp 


1  A  valuable  account  of  Calvin's  influence  is  that  of  E.  Stahelin, 
Johannes  Calvin,  i.  505;  ii.  244. 

2  In  letter  to  Mrs.  Anne  Locke,  December  9,    1556.     In   Works, 
ed.  Laing,  iv.  240. 


378  John  Calvin 

the  whole  European  religious  situation.  The  only 
Protestant  divine  at  all  comparable  to  him  in  this 
quality  of  mind  was  ZwingU,  and  the  field  in  which 
the  Zurich  pastor  laboured  was  relatively  circum- 
scribed. 

As  a  preparation  for  Calvin's  far-reaching  acquaint- 
ance with  the  position  and  the  possibiHties  of  the  Evan- 
geUcal  cause  the  circumstances  of  Calvin's  life  previous 
to  his  return  to  Geneva  in  1541,  were  most  fortunate. 
Acquainted  as  a  student  of  law  and  of  the  humanities 
with  a  considerable  circle  in  France  outside  of  that 
moved  by  the  religious  impulse  which  became  dominant 
in  him  by  1533,  he  rose  to  recognised  leadership  as  the 
spokesman  of  French  Protestantism  by  his  letter  to 
Francis  I.,  in  1536.  His  hfe  at  Basel  brought  him 
familiarity  with  Northern  Switzerland,  his  journeyings 
to  Ferrara  showed  him  a  little  of  Italy,  his  stay  at  Strass- 
burg  strengthened  his  hold  upon  the  Protestantism  of 
his  native  France,  while  bringing  to  him  ample  know- 
ledge of  the  parties  and  leaders  of  Germany.  By  the 
time  of  his  return  to  Geneva,  he  had  become  the  most 
widely  travelled  and  the  most  variously  engaged  of  the 
reformers.  Thenceforth  his  journeys  were  few;  but 
Geneva  became  at  once  a  city  of  refuge,  and  the  future 
rehgious  leaders  of  France,  the  Netherlands,  England, 
and  Scotland,  in  no  small  numbers  came  thither  to 
him. 

Cahdn's  personal  acquaintance  was  maintained  and 
supplemented  by  a  correspondence  of  remarkable 
extent.  Even  aided  as  he  was  by  the  constant  employ- 
ment of  amanuenses,  the  number  and  importance  of  the 


Influence   Outside  of  Geneva     379 

epistolatory  demands  upon  his  strength,  especially 
during  the  later  years  of  his  life,  are  such  as  to  make 
evident  the  value  which  he  attached  to  this  means  of 
serving  the  Evangelical  cause  and  its  time-consuming 
burden/  The  variety  and  significance  of  his  corre- 
spondents are  equally  impressive.  Besides  his  familiar 
and  frequent  letters  to  Farel,  Viret,  Bucer,  Bullinger, 
and  Beza,  the  roll  of  his  correspondents  contains  such 
names  of  reformers  as  those  of  Melanchthon,  Hedio, 
Brentz,  Sturm,  Jonas,  Olevianus,  and  Sleidan  of  Ger- 
many;^ Cranmer,  Grindal,  Hooper,  Coverdale,  Norton, 
Cox,  and  Whittingham  of  England ;  Knox  of  Scotland ; 
Blaurer,  Grynaeus,  Haller,  Musculus,  Myconius,  and 
Sulzer  of  Switzerland ;  a  Lasco  of  Poland,  Friesland,  and 
England;  the  Italian  refugees,  Peter  Martyr,  Ochino, 
and  Zanchi;  the  radicals  LaeHus  Socinus  and  Servetus; 
besides  many  in  France,  including  Admiral  Coligny, 
Cond^,  and  Anthony  of  Navarre.  Many  of  his  cor- 
respondents were  of  great  social  and  political  distinc- 
tion. He  wrote  to  Marguerite  d'Angouleme,  Renee 
of  Ferrara;  Somerset,  the  Lord  Protector  of  England, 
and  Edward  VI.  of  that  realm;  Frederick  III.,  the 
elector  Palatine;  Philip  of  Hesse,  and  Sigismund 
August,  king  of  Poland.      They  are  letters  of  a  writer 


*  The  surviving  letters  to,  from,  and  about  Calvin  fill  volumes  xb.- 
XX.  of  the  Opera,  and  number  4271  pieces.  Calvin's  own  letters, 
beside  a  number  the  address  of  which  is  uncertain,  were  directed  to 
no  less  than  307  persons  and  bodies;  and  this  collection  must  contain 
only  a  portion  of  those  actually  written. 

^  Luther  should  perhaps  be  mentioned,  though  Calvin's  acquaint- 
ance with  him  was  slight  and  they  never  met.     Ante,  p.  243. 


380  John  Calvin 

fully  acquainted  with  the  usages  of  the  cultivated 
world,  clear,  tactful,  energetic,  seldom  of  much  per- 
sonal emotion,  but  penetrated  by  a  profound  con- 
viction of  the  truth  of  his  cause,  a  marvellous  grasp 
of  the  situation,  and  a  transparent  appeal  to  the  reason 
and  will.  He  warns,  he  comforts,  he  intercedes,  he 
gives  the  news  of  the  hour,  he  endeavors  to  foster  the 
Evangelical  cause,  and  to  bring  victory  in  the  contests 
in  which  he  was  engaged  in  Geneva  and  beyond  the 
borders  of  the  city. 

Cahdn's  thoughts  turned  first  of  all  to  his  native 
France.  For  him  Geneva  was  always  a  vantage-point 
for  French  evangelisation.  Situated  on  the  borders  of 
France,  and  speaking  the  language  of  that  land,  Geneva 
was  naturally  the  city  toward  which  French  refugees 
turned.  Calvin  welcomed  them;  and,  in  turn  he  made 
Geneva  a  power  for  the  propagation  of  Reformed  ideas 
in  the  home- land/  French  Protestantism  had  always 
had  its  large  proportion  of  unacknowledged  adherents, 
and  toward  them,  in  spite  of  their  danger  from  persecu- 
tion, Calvin  directed  his  utmost  urgency.  In  his  Petit 
traicte  monstrant  que  c^est  que  doit  jaire  un  homme  fidele 
congnoissant  la  verite  de  VEvangile  quand  il  est  entre  les 
Papistes^  published  as  a  reply  to  many  indi\ddual  in- 


^  On  Calvin's  relations  to  French  Protestantism,  see  Karl  Miiller, 
Calvin  und  die  Anfdnge  der  franzosischen  Hugonoiienkirche,  in  the 
Preussische  Jahrbiicher,  cxiv.  371-389  (December,  1903);  A.  A. 
Tilley,  in  The  Cambridge  Modern  History,  ii.  287-296.  Of  less 
value  is  H.  Diener-Wyss,  Calvin:  ein  aktengetreues  Lebenshild, 
Zvirich,    1904,  pp.  80-97. 

^  Opera,  vi.  537-588. 


Influence  Outside  of  Geneva      381 

quiries  in  1 543,  he  urged  the  duty  of  complete  conformity 
to  the  Gospel:^ — 

I  am  asked  what  advice  I  would  give  to  a  believer  who  is 
thus  dwelling  in  some  Egypt  or  some  Babylon  where  he  is 
not  allowed  to  worship  God  purely,  but  is  constrained, 
according  to  the  common  fashion  to  accommodate  himself  to 
evil  things.  First,  that  he  go  forth,  if  he  is  able.  ...  If 
any  one  has  not  the  means  of  going  away,  I  would  counsel 
him  to  consider  whether  it  is  not  possible  for  him  to  abstain 
from  all  idolatry;  .  .  .  furthermore  that  he  make  it  his  duty 
to  instruct  and  edify  the  poor  ignorant  people  as  far  as  he 
is  able.  If  he  answers  that  he  cannot  do  this  without 
danger  of  death,  I  acknowledge  it.  But  the  glory  of  God, 
which  is  here  in  question,  ought  to  be  much  more  precious 
to  us  than  this  fading  and  transitory  life. 

To  many  French  Protestants  this  seemed  hard  doc- 
trine; and  to  these  accommodating  and  halting  souls 
Calvin  replied  in  1544,  in  his  Excuse  .  .  .  a  Messieurs 
les  Nicodemites,'^ — a  nickname  which  he  coined  for 
them.  But  to  many,  also,  Calvin's  insistence  on  the 
maintenance  of  "the  glory  of  God,"  was  a  trumpet-call 
to  utmost  self-sacrifice. 

Calvin  was  in  no  way  indifferent  to  the  course  of 
governmental  repression  to  which  he  urged  such  manful 
though  wholly  spiritual  resistance.  His  efforts  while 
at  Regensburg  to  secure  German  action  aimed  at  a 
mitigation  of  persecution  in  France  have  already  been 
noted.3    On  his  return  to  Geneva  they  were  continued, 


^  Opera,  vi.  576. 

2  Ibid.,  pp.  559-644. 

3  Ante,  p.  242. 


382  John  Calvin 

when  occasion  demanded,  though  with  little  success. 
On  the  outbreak  of  the  savage  attack  upon  the  Walden- 
ses  of  Provence,  in  1545,  he  aroused  the  Genevan  govern- 
ment to  assist  the  fugitives;  and,  with  its  countenance, 
journeyed  to  Bern,  Basel,  Zurich,  Schaffhausen,  and 
Strassburg  to  secure  action  by  the  several  Protestant 
governments  in  their  behalf/  Each  case  of  persecution 
for  the  Evangelical  faith  was  to  Calvin  a  matter  of  pro- 
found interest ;  and,  as  far  as  possible,  of  effort  in  behalf 
of  the  victim,  either  by  exciting  Protestant  attempts  at 
intervention  or  by  letters  of  encouragement  to  those 
under  suffering, — though  of  course  the  fate  of  the  ma- 
jority of  martyrs  was  too  speedily  determined  to  permit 
of  either  form  of  attempted  assistance. 

One  of  the  most  notable  instances  of  Calvin's  masterly 
relation  to  the  cause  of  the  persecuted  in  France  oc- 
curred in  1552  in  connection  with  the  "five  scholars  of 
Lausanne."  Severe  as  was  the  persecution  under 
Francis  I.,  after  the  Placards,  its  intensity  was  increased 
after  the  accession  of  Henry  11.  in  1547.  Five  young 
Frenchmen,  who  had  studied  under  Beza  and  Viret  at 
Lausanne,  now  on  their  way  home  to  preach  the  Evan- 
geHcal  faith,  were  arrested,  in  May,  1552,  at  Lyons, 
and  sentenced  by  the  ecclesiastical  court.  By  an  appeal 
to  the  Parlement  of  Paris  their  death  by  fire  was  delayed 
till  May  16,  1553.  The  government  of  Bern,  and  of 
other  cantons,  protested  to  the  King  in  vain  in  their 
behalf;  and  Calvin  sent  to  them  encouragement, 
without  a  trace  of  sentimentahty,  but  breathing  a  spirit 


I  Letters  in  Opera,  xii.  75-84;  see  also  xxi.  352-354.     See  Baird, 
Rise  0}  the  Huguenots,  i.  244-251;  TheCamh.  Mod.  Hist.,  ii.   289. 


Influence  Outside  of  Geneva      383 

like  that  of  a  commander  in  battle.'     A  single  quotation 
may  exhibit  this  quaHty :  '^ — 

It  is  needful  that  you  sustain  hard  conflicts,  that  that  which 
was  said  to  Peter  be  accomplished  in  you:  **You  shall  be 
carried  whither  ye  would  not."  But  you  know  in  what 
strength  you  have  to  fight;  upon  which  all  who  rely  shall 
never  be  surprised  and  still  less  confounded.  Therefore, 
my  brothers,  be  confident  that  you  will  be  strengthened 
according  to  your  need  by  the  spirit  of  our  Lord  Jesus  that 
you  fail  not  under  the  burden  of  temptations,  however 
pressing  they  may  be,  any  more  than  He  who  had  so  glorious 
a  victory  that  it  is  an  infallible  pledge  to  us  of  our  triumph 
in  the  midst  of  our  miseries.  If  He  pleases  to  make  use 
of  you  even  to  death  in  His  battle.  He  will  uphold  you  by 
His  mighty  hand  to  fight  firmly,  and  will  not  suffer  a  single 
drop  of  your  blood  to  remain  useless. 

The  whole  Evangelical  cause  in  France  drew  strength 
from  the  contagious  example  set  by  Calvin  at  Geneva, 
from  the  courage  of  the  preachers  that  he  trained  and 
the  firmness  of  his  system  of  churchly  organisation. 
In  some  respects  that  system  was  at  its  best  outside  of 
Geneva;  for  in  a  degree  unmatched  by  that  of  any 
other  of  the  reformers  it  suited  the  needs  of  an  op- 
pressed cause  which  had  to  rely  on  its  own  inherent 
strength.  In  Geneva  the  principles  enunciated  in  the 
Institutes  were  limited  by  dependence  on  a  civil  govern- 
ment theoretically  friendly  and  co-operant,  but  often 


I  Opera,  xiv.  331,  423,  469,  491,  544;  Baird,  i.  283-285;  The  Camb. 
Mod.  Hist.,  ii.  293. 
*  Opera,  xiv.  423. 


384  John  Calvin 

jealous  of  ecclesiastical  independence.  In  lands  where 
the  authorities  were  hostile,  or  of  another  race  as  at 
Strassburg,  Calvin's  church  government  showed  its 
full  power.  Lutheranism,  Zwinghanism,  and  Angli- 
canism were  dependent  on  the  State;  Calvinistic  Pres- 
byterianism  secured  a  self  -  governing,  intelhgently 
served,  and  strictly  discipHned  Church, — an  ecclesiasti- 
cal imperium  in  imperio. 

Calvin  discouraged  the  formation  of  churches,  with 
the  administration  of  the  Sacraments,  until  the  close-knit 
congregation  after  the  Genevan  model  could  be  had.^ 
Informal  assembHes  of  EvangeHcal  believers  had  ex- 
isted, more  or  less  continuously  in  Paris,  Meaux,  Nimes, 
and  elsewhere  in  France;  but,  in  1555,  the  considerable 
organisation  of  Protestant  churches,  equipped  on  the 
Genevan  pattern  with  pastors,  elders,  and  deacons 
began.  In  that  year,  the  Paris  congregation  was  defi- 
nitely organised,  and  others  were  constituted  in  Angers, 
Poitiers,  Loudon,  and  Arvert.  Churches  in  Blois, 
Montoire,  Bourges,  Issoudun,  Aubigny,  and  Tours 
followed  in  1556;  Orleans  and  Rouen  were  thus  sup- 
pHed  in  1557;  and,  in  1558,  no  less  than  twenty  came 
into  being.  By  the  beginning  of  1559,  there  were 
seventy- two  in  France.^  Under  Calvin's  leadership, 
Geneva  set  itself  to  supply  them  with  pastors,  and 
these  churches  in  turn  looked  to  Calvin  for  their  min- 
istry.    In  1559,  nineteen  ministers  were  either  asked  of 


I  Miiller,  op.  cii.,  p.  384. 

*  The  Camb.  Mod.  Hist.,  ii.  293,  294;  Miiller,  op.  cii.,  p.  385.  The 
number  of  Protestant  gatherings,  of  incomplete  organisation,  was 
much  greater. 


Influence  Outside  of  Geneva      385 

or  sent  from  Geneva;  in  1560,  twelve;  while  in  1561 
the  number  of  demands  for  such  assistance  rose  to 
ninety.'  It  was,  of  course,  impossible  for  Geneva 
to  supply  all  this  need;  but  between  1555  and  1566, 
one  hundred  and  twenty  pastors  were  sent  by  the 
Venerable  Compagnie  to  French  churches.^  No  won- 
der French  Protestantism  was  moulded  by  Calvin's 
spirit. 

In  spite  of  relentless  persecution,  the  French  Church 
went  forward  with  its  organisation.  From  May  26  to 
28,  1559,  the  first  Protestant  General  Synod  met  at 
Paris.  A  firm  constitution,  on  Calvin's  principles,  was 
adopted,  by  which  adjacent  churches  were  grouped  in 
a  "colloquy,"  and  the  neighbouring  "colloquies"  in  a 
"provincial  synod,"  while  all  were  represented  in  a 
national  synod.  A  confession  of  faith  was  issued,  often, 
though  apparently  erroneously,  attributed  to  Calvin; 
but  epitomising  with  great  clearness  his  theological 
system,  and  largely  the  work  of  his  devoted  pupil, 
Antoine  de  la  Roche  Chandieu.^  A  great  national 
Church,  for  the  first  time  in  Reformation  history,  was 
created  independent  of  a  hostile  State;  and  the  work 
was  one  for  which  Calvin  had  given  the  model,  the  in- 
spiration, and  the  training,  even  though  its  actual  ac- 
complishment aroused,  at  the  moment,   his    anxiety 


I  Opera,  xxi.  710-771. 

'  The  Camb.  Mod.  Hist.,  ii.  294;  the  same  work,  p.  373,  gives  the 
number  as  161. 

3  Text,  Opera,  ix.  731-752;  Schaff,  Creeds  of  Christendom,  in.  356- 
382.     See  also  Opera,  Ibid.,  p.  Ivii;  Schaff,  Ibid.,  i.  493;  The  Camb. 
Mod.  Hist.,  ii.  295;  Stahelin,  in   Realencyklopddie,  iii.  677;  Miiller, 
op.  cit.,  p.  388. 
35 


386  John  Calvin 

rather  than  won  his  approval.*  With  its  churches  he 
continued  in  constant  correspondence.  They  sought 
his  advice  in  difficulties  and  his  comfort  in  trial.  In  a 
real  sense,  Calvin  was  a  bishop  to  the  Huguenot  con- 
gregations of  France  and  took  upon  himself,  so  long 
as  he  Hved,  the  "care  of  all  the  churches." 

As  the  Protestant  cause  developed  in  France,  it  began 
to  attract  converts  from  the  higher  classes,  and  by  the 
time  of  the  first  meeting  of  the  General  Synod  it  was 
becoming  a  political  party  as  well  as  a  rehgious  propa- 
ganda. Calvin  promptly  put  himself  in  communication 
with  these  more  distinguished  converts.  By  1558,  he 
was  writing  to  Francois  d'Andelot,  whose  conversion  to 
Protestantism  had  been  wrought  by  Calvin's  pubhca- 
tions,  to  Anthony  of  Navarre  and  to  Admiral  CoHgny. 
He  followed  with  painful  interest  the  course  of  persecu- 
tion that  marked  the  last  days  of  Henry  II.,  and  the 
accession  of  the  Guises  to  power  when  Francis  II.  came 
to  the  throne  in  July,  1559.  He  disapproved  of  the 
plot  to  break  the  control  of  that  intensely  Catholic 
family  in  March,  1560,  known  as  the  ''Tumult  of  Am- 
boise."  ""  He  had  no  confidence  in  such  illegitimate 
intrigues;  and  distrusted  the  use  of  force.  Yet  he  was 
glad  to  have  Beza  do  what  he  could  to  arouse  the  King 
of  Navarre  to  put  himself  at  the  head  of  a  proposed 
demonstration  of  a  more  legitimate  character  in  the 
South  of  France,  which,  had  Anthony  of  Bourbon  been 
a  man  of  vigour,  might  easily  have  led  to  civil  war  in 
the  summer  of  the  same  year. 


See  Calvin's  letter  of  May  17,  1559,  Opera,  xvii.  525. 

Letters  to  BuUinger,  Blaurer,  and  Coligny,  Opera,  xviii.  84,  95, 425. 


Influence   Outside  of  Geneva     387 

With  the  death  of  Francis  11.  on  December  5,  1560, 
the  power  of  the  Guises  was  broken,  and  the  position  of 
French  Protestantism  immediately  improved.  Its  ad- 
herents were  growing  rapidly  in  numbers;  and  in  July, 
1 561,  the  Evangelicals  were  summoned  to  present  their 
case  before  the  new  king,  Charles  IX.  At  the  Colloquy 
held  in  consequence  at  Poissy  in  September  follow- 
ing, the  Protestants  were  represented  by  twelve  min- 
isters, headed  by  Beza.  They  would  gladly  have  had 
Calvin  as  their  spokesman;  but  even  his  most  ardent 
friends  did  not  dare  advise  so  hated  a  foe  of  the  older 
communion  to  expose  himself  to  the  dangers  of  a  journey 
to  France,  nor  was  the  Genevan  Little  Council  willing 
that  he  should  thus  imperil  his  life.^  With  the  following 
March,  and  the  massacre  at  Vassy,  the  great  Huguenot 
wars  began ;  but  Calvin  could  well  hope  that  the  peace  of 
Amboise,  of  March  18,  1563,  by  which  the  first  of  the 
long  series  of  struggles  was  ended,  was  but  the  dawn  of 
the  triumph  of  Protestantism  in  his  native  land,  though 
he  disapproved  its  relatively  slight  advantages  to  the 
cause  he  had  at  heart  and  felt  much  anxiety  for  the 
future.^  To  his  thinking  war  was  a  poor  means  of 
advancing  the  Gospel.  ''I  would  always  counsel,"  he 
wrote  on  news  of  the  peace,  ''that  arms  be  laid  aside, 
and  that  we  all  perish  rather  than  enter  again  on  the 
confusions  that  have  been  witnessed."  ^  Calvin  did 
not  live  to  see  the  renewal  of  the  conflict. 

In  the  neighbouring  Netherlands  Calvin's  theologic 


^  Opera,  xviii.  555;    xxi.  755;    Baird,  Theodore  Beza,  p.  136. 

2  Opera,  xix.  687-693. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  688. 


John  Calvin 

and  organising  influence  proved  as  determinative  as  in 
France,  though  he  exercised  no  such  superintendence 
as  there  over  the  churches,— few  of  which,  indeed,  were 
founded  till  near  the  close  of  his  life.  Under  the  influx 
of  preachers  from  France  into  the  French-speaking 
southern  provinces,  the  movement  in  the  Netherlands  in 
favour  of  Protestantism,  which  in  its  beginnings  had  been 
Lutheran  and  Anabaptist,  became  prevaihngly  Calvin- 
istic.  Most  extensive  at  first  among  the  Walloons,  it 
won  its  strongest  support,  though  not  till  after  Calvin's 
death,  in  the  northern  territories  which  were  ultimately 
to  gain  their  independence  of  Spain.  Guy  de  Bray,  the 
Netherlandish  martyr,  to  whom,  whatever  may  have 
been  the  aid  received  from  others,  the  preparation  of  the 
Belgic  Confession  of  1561  was  due,  had  almost  un- 
questionably come  into  personal  relations  with  Calvin 
at  Frankfort  in  1556.'  This  Confession,  which  was  to 
become  a  doctrinal  basis  of  the  Reformed  Church  of 
Holland  and  of  its  spiritual  offspring  in  America,  was 
modelled  in  large  part  on  that  adopted  by  the  Huguenot 
synod  at  Paris  in  1559,^  and  shows  its  author  to  have 
been  a  convinced  disciple  of  Calvin,  As  in  France,  and 
amid  even  severer  struggles,  the  Calvinistic  system 
proved  itself  a  discipHne  for  battle.  The  State  Church 
of  the  \dctorious  northern  pro^dnces  was  to  be  one  of  the 
most  eminent  members  of  the  Calvinistic  family. 
Calvin's  relations  to  the  leaders  of  the  Reformation 


I  L.  A.  van  Langeraad,  in  Hauck's  Realencyklopadie,  iii.  364.  For 
the  Confession  and  its  history  see  SchafiF,  Creeds  0}  Christendom,  i.  502*- 
508;   iii.  383-436. 

^Ante,  p.  385. 


Influence   Outside  of  Geneva     389 

in  England  and  Scotland  were  even  more  direct  and 
personal.  He  wrote  to  the  Lord  Protector,  the  Duke  of 
Somerset,  in  the  early  months  of  the  reign  of  Edward 
VL,  urging  strenuous  preaching  of  pure  doctrine,  ex- 
tirpation of  Roman  abuses  and  vigorous  discipline. 
"You  have,"  said  Calvin,  "two  sorts  of  headstrong 
fellows  who  raise  themselves  against  the  King  and  the 
state  of  the  kingdom.  The  one  is  of  fantastic  folk  who 
would  put  all  in  confusion  under  pretence  of  the  Gospel. 
The  other  is  of  persons  obstinate  in  the  superstitions  of 
the  Roman  antichrist.  Both  will  deserve  to  be  re- 
pressed by  the  sword  which  is  intrusted  to  you."  ^  He 
corresponded  with  Cranmer.  He  exhorted  the  young 
King  to  support  the  Reformation  cause  with  zeal.  As 
Edward's  brief  reign  advanced,  his  influence  and  the 
acceptance  of  his  doctrines  in  England  increased.  But 
it  was  by  reason  of  the  cordial  welcome  that  Calvin  gave 
to  the  exiles  whom  the  policy  of  Mary  drove  to  seek 
shelter  on  the  Continent,  and  their  acquaintance  with 
his  system,  at  its  Genevan  fountain-head,  that  his 
following  in  England  was  chiefly  developed.  Those 
refugees,  rejected  by  the  Protestant  cities  of  Northern 
Germany  on  account  of  their  non- conformity  to  Luther's 
views  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  found  in  Calvin  a  warm 
friend.  He  endeavoured,  though  without  success,  to 
heal  the  breach  between  the  adherents  of  the  English 
Prayer-Book  and  their  more  radical  opponents  in  the 
exiled  congregation  at  Frankfort.  Though  his  sym- 
pathies were  with  its  critics,  the  English  service  seemed 
to  him,  at  worst,  to  be  chargeable  only  with  "many  en- 


I  October  22,  1548,  Opera,  xiii.  65-90. 


390  John  Calvin 

durable  trifles."  '  When  the  Frankfort  refugees  divided 
on  the  issue,  he  welcomed  to  Geneva  the  critical  wing, 
led  by  John  Knox,  and  secured  for  their  use,  and  that  of 
the  ItaHan  Protestant  exiles,  the  Church  of  Mary  the 
New,  (the  ''Auditoire")  with  careful  definition  of  their 
rights  of  worship  in  their  own  languages.''  On  one  day 
in  October,  1557,  no  less  than  fifty  Enghsh  refugees 
were  admitted  inhabitants  of  the  city;  and,  on  May  30, 
1560,  when  the  favourable  reign  of  Elizabeth  permitted 
their  return  to  England,  these  sojourners  for  their  faith 
formally  thanked  the  Genevan  government  for  the 
hospitaHty  they  had  enjoyed .^ 

The  return  of  the  Marian  exiles  to  England  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  greatly  increased  acquaintance  with,  and 
acceptance  of,  Calvin's  system  in  that  land.  The  more 
eager  Protestants  looked  upon  the  reform  of  the  Church 
largely  from  his  point  of  view.  They  desired  its  further 
purification  from  Roman  observances,  the  estabhsh- 
ment  of  an  earnest,  preaching  ministry,  and  of  a 
thorough  parochial  discipUne.  The  result  was  the 
growth  of  the  Puritan  party, — a  movement  which  was 
only  in  its  beginnings  at  the  time  of  Calvin's  death,  but 
which  was  to  grow  all  through  the  reigns  of  Elizabeth 
and  James,  to  lead  to  the  settlement  of  New  England, 
and  to  wrest  the  sceptre  for  a  time  from  the  House  of 
Stuart.  In  the  Confession  and  Catechisms  of  the  West- 
minster Assembly,  called  in  1643,  in  the  midst  of  the 
great  civil  war,  Calvinism  was  to  be  given  a  symboUc 


1  January  i8,  1555,  Opera,  xv.  394.     See  also  337,  554,  776- 

2  Ihid.,  xxi.  619,  620  (November,  1555). 

3  Ihid.,  pp.  676,  732. 


EXTERIOR  OF  THE       AUDITOIRE,  "  ORIGINALLY       NOTRE  DAME-LA-NEUVE, 
IN  GENEVA. 


Influence  Outside  of  Geneva      391 

expression  that  is  still  in  its  essential  features  the  recog- 
nised creed  of  thousands  of  Christians  in  Scotland  and 
America.  And  even  where  Calvin's  theories  of  church 
organisation  and  discipline  were  rejected,  there  was  in 
England  for  years  after  his  death  a  general  use  of  his 
Institutes  and  Catechism  in  the  theological  instruction  in 
the  universities;  and  a  wide  sympathy  with  his  theology, 
of  which  that  arch-enemy  of  the  Puritans,  Archbishop 
John  Whitgift,  may  be  cited  as  an  illustration. 

Calvin's  connection  with  the  Reformation  in  Scot- 
land was  closely  bound  up  with  his  association  with  the 
chief  Scottish  reformer,  John  Knox.  The  beginnings  of 
Knox's  Evangelical  activity  in  Scotland,  and  his  im- 
prisonment by  the  French  captors  of  St.  Andrews,  were 
followed  by  ministerial  kbours  in  England  under  the 
reign  of  Edward  VI.  Soon  after  the  accession  of  Mary 
he  had  to  fly  to  the  Continent,  and  in  1554  was  in  Ge- 
neva, an  eager  student  of  theology  and  of  Hebrew,  and 
an  enthusiastic  admirer  and  disciple  of  Calvin.  From 
Geneva  he  went,  in  the  same  year,  to  become  a  preacher 
to  the  mixed  congregation  of  EngHsh  and  French  refu- 
gees at  Frankfort,  only  to  involve  that  body  in  contro- 
versies over  the  use  of  the  Edwardine  liturgy;  and  to 
be  forced  to  leave  the  city  in  March,  1555.  With  his 
fellow-believers  he  now  made  his  way  once  more  to 
Geneva.  Thence,  in  the  autumn  of  the  same  year, 
Knox  returned  to  Scotland  to  spend  a  few  stormy 
months  in  premature  efforts  toestabHsh  the  Reformation. 
The  close  of  the  summer  of  1556,  saw^  him  once  more  in 
Geneva  where  he  now  became  the  pastor  of  the  EngHsh 
fugitive    congregation, — an   office  which  he   held    till 


392  John  Calvin 

his  final  and  successful  return  to  Scotland  in  May, 
1559.  The  estimate  in  which  he  was  held  by  Calvin 
and  his  Genevan  friends  is  shown  by  his  gratuitous 
admission,  on  June  24,  1558,  as  a  burgher  of  the 
town, — the  records  curiously  describing  him  as  "of 
Scotland  in  England,  English  minister  in  this  city."  ' 
Knox's  return  to  Scotland  was  followed  by  the  sharp 
battle  for  the  estabhshment  of  Protestantism  and  its 
victorious  outcome  in  the  summer  of  1560.  The  new 
Kirk  of  Scotland,  erected  with  such  violent  overthrow 
of  older  institutions,  and  as  a  consequence  of  what  was 
no  less  a  civil  than  a  rehgious  revolution,  was  fashioned 
on  the  model  created  by  Cahdn.  Its  Confession, 
drafted  by  Knox  and  his  associates  in  four  strenuous 
days  of  August,  1560,^  was  essentially  Calvinistic.  It 
emphasised  true  preaching,  the  right  administration  of 
the  Sacraments,  and  the  characteristic  Calvinistic 
trait  of  discipHne,  as  the  notes  of  the  Church ;  it  viewed 
the  "conservation  and  purgation"  of  religion  as  a 
prime  duty  of  civil  rulers.  The  worship  of  the  Scottish 
Church  Knox  attempted  to  regulate  after  the  model  of 
the  English  refugee  services  in  Geneva.  Its  Presbyierian 
constitution,  with  the  session  of  minister,  elders,  and 
deacons  in  each  normal  congregation,  the  stated  meet- 
ings which  soon  developed  into  "presbyteries,"  the 
district   "synods,"   and   the   "General  Assembly"   of 


1  opera,  xxi.  697. 

2  Schaff,  Creeds  of  Christendom,  i.  680-685,  iii.  437-479.  Election 
and  reprobation,  though  taught,  are  not  made  so  prominent  as  they 
would  probably  have  been  by  Calvin.  Presbyterianism  is  not  a 
jure  divino  polity. 


Influence  Outside  of  Geneva     393 

ministers  and  delegated  ciders  over  all,  was  the  applica- 
tion to  the  whole  kingdom  of  the  principles  of  the 
Institutes  as  already  embodied  in  the  practice  of  Geneva 
and  of  the  Huguenot  churches  of  France.  If  Knox  in 
his  "superintendents"  retained  a  prelatical  element  in 
his  constitution,  it  was  destined  to  be  short-lived.  In 
Scotland,  Calvinism  was  to  bear  some  of  its  noblest 
fruits.  It  proved  marvellously  adapted  to  the  training 
of  the  nation,  from  the  semi-barbarism  of  pre-Reforma- 
tion  days  into  the  forceful,  intelligent,  able  Scotland  of 
modern  history.  If  the  great  Reformation  upheaval 
was  given  its  form  by  the  genius  of  Knox,  his  work  was 
moulded  and  made  possible  by  the  training  and  in- 
spiration that  flowed  from  Calvin. 

The  Genevan  reformer  followed  the  course  of  Knox's 
work  in  Scotland  with  affection  for  a  disciple,  as  well  as 
with  interest  in  the  cause.  Knox  presented  inquiries, 
signing  himself  vohis  addictissimus.  In  replying,  Calvin 
addressed  him  as  eximie  vir  et  jrater  nobis  carissime. 
He  had  a  word  of  moderation  for  Knox's  rough-shod 
impetuosity,  but  the  work  as  a  whole  must  have  been 
one  of  thorough  satisfaction  to  Calvin.^ 

Calvin's  influence  penetrated  even  earlier  to  eastern 
Europe,  with  much  apparent  prospect  of  large  results, 
though  with  far  less  permanency  and  ultimate  success 
than  in  the  countries  just  considered.  In  Poland, 
Calvin's  teaching  found  a  prompt  hearing,  not  only  as 
offering  the  most  effective  weapon  against  the  strong 
Roman  party,  but  as  more  acceptable  than  anything 
which  savoured  of  German  origin, — a  source  which  the 


See  letters  in  Opera,  xvii.  619,  665;   xviii.  434;   xix.  74. 


394  John  Calvin 

Polish  leaders  viewed  with  no  little  jealousy.     By  1545, 
Calvinism  was  spreading  rapidly  among  the  nobles  and 
educated   classes  of  "Little  Poland"    about   Cracow. 
Calvin's  Institutes  were  widely  read.     In  1549,  Calvin 
dedicated   his  Commentar}^  on  Hebrews  to   the  young 
king,   Sigismund  Augustus.^     The  King,  who  was    at 
heart   a  very   tolerant   CathoHc,   married   a   sister  of 
Nicolas  Radziwill,   the   leading   Calvinist   among  the 
nobihty.     Calvin  wrote  to  Sigismund  and  to  Radziwill 
in  1554  and  1555,  earnestly  commending  activity  in  the 
Reformation  cause,  and  favouring,  at  least  by  implica- 
tion, the  retention  of  an  episcopal  order  in  Poland.^ 
The  next  year  he  was  invited  to  Poland  by  the  Calvin- 
istic  ministers  and  nobles  assembled  in  a  synod  at  Pinc- 
20W, — a  request  to  which  he  returned   a  regretful  re- 
fusal in  March,  1557.3     His  interest  and  participation 
by  letter  in  PoHsh  affairs  continued  unabated ;  but  the 
work  of  organisation  which  Calvin  might  have  under- 
taken was  carried  on  from  the  close  of  1556  till  ended 
by  death  in  1560,  by  John  a  Lasco,  already  distinguished 
in  Friesland  and  England.     It  promised  much.     But, 
though  Calvin  did  not  live  to  witness  its  decline,  the 
Protestant  cause  was  soon  weakened  in  Poland  by  in- 
ternal   quarrels   between   Lutherans,    Calvinists,    and 
Anti-Trinitarians.     It  never  took  strong  hold  upon  the 
lower  classes;  and,  with  the  exception  of  a  Lasco,  never 
developed  a  champion  of  commanding  abihties. 


1  opera,  xiii.  281.     See  R.  N.  Bain,  in  The  Camh.  Mod.  Hist.,  iii. 
74-86;   Dalton,  in  Hauck's  Realencyklopddie,  xv.  514-525. 

2  Opera,  xv.  329,  428;   especially,  SS3- 

3  Ibid.,  xvi.  128,  420. 


Influence  Outside  of  Geneva      395 

In  yet  another  region  of  eastern  Europe,  Calvinism 
became  a  power,  though  at  a  somewhat  later  period 
than  in  Poland.  In  Hungary,  its  appeal  was  especially 
to  the  Magyar  element  in  the  population.  At  a  Cal- 
vinistic  synod  held  at  Czenger  in  1557  or  1558,  the 
Hungarian  Confession  was  drafted;  and  by  1563,  Cal- 
vinism was  widespread  and  its  characteristic  discipline 
and  organisation  introduced.^  Calvinism  in  Hungary 
has  survived  the  vicissitudes  of  fierce  persecution,  and 
the  adherents  of  churches  Calvinistic  in  origin  and 
profession  even  now  number  two  thirds  of  the  Evan- 
gelical population  of  the  land,  or  not  far  from  one 
seventh  of  its  inhabitants. 

Calvin's  most  difficult  relations  were  with  the  churches 
of  German-speaking  Switzerland  which  were  his  nearest 
neighbours.  Already  established  before  he  began  his 
work,  and  not  in  the  making,  as  were  those  of  which 
mention  has  been  made,  they  were  not  easily  to  be 
moulded  to  his  ideas.  Their  constitutions  all  gave  an 
ecclesiastical  authority  to  the  civil  magistrates  which  he 
rejected  in  theory,  and  in  practice  so  far  as  he  was  able 
at  Geneva.  Bern  stood  in  constant  hostihty  to  his 
system  of  discipline,  and  never  became  wholly  recon- 
ciled to  his  teaching  in  his  lifetime.  The  freer  thought 
of  Basel  looked  with  grave  suspicion  on  his  emphasis  on 
predestination.  In  Zurich  he  was  long  regarded  as  too 
much  of  a  Lutheran  on  the  doctrine  of  the  Lord's 
Supper.  Yet  he  obtained  an  agreement,  in  1549,  with 
the  Zurich  divines,  led  by  the  peace-loving  Bullinger, 
on  this  burning  question  of  the  Reformation  age,  that 


^  Schaff,  Creeds  of  Christendom,  i.  589-592. 


396  John  Calvin 

paved  the  way  to  more  friendly  relations  which  resulted 
ultimately  in  the  general  acceptance  of  Calvin's  doc- 
trinal system  in  essential,  if  moderate  form,  though  not 
of  his  disciplinary  pecuHarities,  by  all  the  Protestant 
churches  of  Switzerland.  The  work  of  Zwingh  was 
absorbed  in  the  larger  and  abler  development  due  to 
Calvin,  very  much  as  was  the  theological  system  of 
Bucer. 

The  agreement  between  the  spiritual  leaders  of 
Geneva  and  of  Zurich  shows  to  much  advantage  the 
skill  and  good-feeling  of  both.  Calvin,  as  has  already 
been  pointed  out,^  was  far  more  in  sympathy  wath 
Luther  than  with  Zwingli  in  the  conception  of  Christ's 
presence  in  the  Supper  set  forth  in  the  first  edition  of  the 
Institutes,  though  denying  to  that  presence  the  physical 
quality  which  Luther  had  made  so  essential.  BulHnger, 
who  had  succeeded  at  Zwingli's  premature  death  to 
the  leadership  of  the  Zurich  ministry,  had  departed 
from  Zwingli  so  far  as  to  lay  much  greater  emphasis 
than  he  on  the  work  wrought  by  Christ  through  the  Sac- 
rament in  the  believing  recipient,  and  was  consequently 
approaching  Calvin's  intermediate  position  between 
the  interpretations  of  founders  of  German  and  Swiss 
Protestantism.  Agreement  on  this  much  disputed  ques- 
tion was  therefore  relatively  easy;  and,  after  consider- 
able correspondence  in  1548  and  1549,  supplemented 
by  personal  conference,  Calvin  and  BulHnger  united, 
in  the  year  last  named,  in  the  Consensus  of  Zurich.  ^ 


^  Ante,  p.  142. 

=»Text,  Opera,  vii.  659-748;  see  also  Ibid.^  xii.  480,  590,  705,  727; 
xiii.  no,  164,  221,  223,  259,  278;   Schaff,  Creeds,  i.  471-473. 


Influence   Outside  of  Geneva 


397 


Undoubtedly  in  this  agreement,  and  in  his  desire  for 
union,  Calvin  went  as  far  as  he  could  in  the  Zwinglian 
direction.  BuUinger's  decidedly  modified  Zwinglianism 
was  substantially  unaltered.^  Any  form  of  physical 
presence  was  rejected.  But  an  emphasis  wholly  agree- 
able to  Calvin,  and  not  objectionable  to  BuUinger,  was 
laid  on  the  true  spiritual  union  wrought  between  Christ 
and  the  behever  by  the  Sacrament,  while  a  character- 
istically Calvinistic  note  was  struck  in  the  restriction  of 
the  reception  of  its  benefits  to  the  elect.  Not  printed 
till  1 551,  this  Consensus  was  soon  accepted  not  merely 
by  the  churches  of  Geneva  and  Zurich,  but  by  those  of 
Schaffhausen,  St.  Gall,  Neuchatel,  and  Basel,  and  con- 
stituted a  bond  of  theologic  union  between  German  and 
French  speaking  Switzerland. 

Calvin  had  less  success,  as  has  already  been  noted  in 
speaking  of  the  controversy  with  Bolsec,  in  securing 
prompt  acceptance  for  his  uncompromising  presenta- 
tion of  the  doctrine  of  a  twofold  predestination.  The 
Genevan  Consensus  of  1552  on  this  matter  failed  to 
secure  a  symboHc  authority  outside  that  city."*  But  the 
doctrine,  in  Calvin's  interpretation  of  it,  even  if  with 
some  caution  in  expression,  won  its  way  in  the  Reformed 
churches;  and  here,  as  elsewhere,  the  master  mind  of 
the  Genevan  reformer  tended  to  bring  all  non-Lutheran 
and  non- Anglican  Protestantism  under  its  sway.^ 


1  Egli  and  Heer,  in  Hauck's  Realencyklopddie,  iii.  543,  545. 

2  Text,  Opera,  viii.  249-366. 

3  A  discussion  of  much  value  is  that  of  Prof.  B.  B.  Warfield,  "Pre- 
destination in  the  Reformed  Confessions,"  in  the  Presbyterian  and 
Reformed  Review,  January,  1901,  pp.  49-128. 


398  John  Calvin 

The  agreement  of  the  Swiss  churches  on  the  nature 
and  effects  of  Christ's  presence  in  the  Supper,  brought 
about  by  the  Consensus  of  Zurich,  became  the  occasion 
of  the  bitterest  doctrinal  controversy  of  Calvin's  later 
|ife^_that  with  the  extreme  Lutheran,  Joachim  West- 
phal  of  Hamburg,  who  regarded  its  denial  of  Christ's 
physical  presence  not  merely  as  a  restatement  of  the 
hated  Zwinglian  heresy,  but  believed  that  by  attacking  it 
he  was  defending  original  and  pure  Lutheranism  against 
secret  Melanchthonian  modifications.  In  the  bitter 
exchange  of  controversial  pamphlets  that  ensued  from 
1552  to  1557;  and  again  in  the  dispute  on  the  same 
thorny  doctrine  with  Tilemann  Hesshusen  of  Heidelberg 
and  Magdeburg  in  1560  and  1561,'  Calvin  claimed  Me- 
lanchthon  for  his  doctrine;  and  with  no  Httle  justifica- 
tion, though  the  cautious  German  reformer  held  himseK 
as  far  as  possible  from  the  battle.  The  struggle  gave  to 
Calvin,  however,  a  painful  feeling  of  estrangement  from 
the  German  Protestants,  whose  leaders  he  had  earher 
known  and  admired  and  whose  interests  he  had  defended 
with  his  pen  against  the  emperor,  Charles  V. 

Though  Calvin's  relations  to  the  German  divines  of 
the  stricter  Lutheran  school  thus  became  increasingly 
strained  during  the  later  years  of  his  life,  he  had  the 
satisfaction  of  seeing  his  theology,  though  only  in  a 
very  moderate  degree  his  system  of  church  discipline, 
begin  a  career  of  conquest  on  German  soil  that  was  to 
be  continued  long  after  his  death.''    The  bitterness  of 

^  Opera,  ix.  1-120,  137-252,  457-524. 

=»  An  excellent  epitome  of  this  theme,  with  references  to  its  literature, 
is  that  of  Gustav  Kawerau,  in  the  2nd  ed.  of  Moeller,  Lehrhuch  der 
Kirchengeschichte,  iii.  276-292. 


Influence   Outside  of  Geneva      399 

the  attack  made  by  the  strict  Lutherans  upon  the 
Philippists,  as  the  followers  of  the  moderate  Melanch- 
thon  were  styled,  drew  these  milder  Lutherans  into 
increasing  sympathy  with  the  Genevan  reformer. 
Agreeing  at  first  with  Calvin  principally  in  the  essen- 
tial features  of  his  theory  of  Christ's  presence  in  the 
Supper,  and  little  inclined  to  accept  his  strenuous  views 
of  predestination,  the  exigencies  of  conflict  with  their 
ultra -Lutheran  opponents,  the  force  of  the  Institutes, 
and  to  some  extent  the  influence  of  the  Genevan 
Academy  in  attracting  and  impressing  its  students, 
inclined  the  Philippist  party,  especially  in  south-west- 
ern Germany,  to  a  growing  appreciation  of  Calvinism. 
It  was  in  the  Palatinate  that  these  results  were  most 
evident  in  Calvin's  lifetime. 

Frederick  III.,  of  the  Palatinate,  long  of  earnestly 
religious  temper,  was  led  by  the  controversies  between 
the  extreme  Lutheran  Tilemann  Hesshusen,  already 
mentioned,  and  the  latter's  deacon,  Wilhelm  Klebitz  of 
Heidelberg,  to  a  careful  study  of  theology  which  left 
him  a  convinced  Calvinist.  He  now  summoned  to  his 
aid  two  young  divines,  both  personally  acquainted  with 
Calvin  and  Bullinger,  Kaspar  Olevianus  in  January, 
1560,  and  Zacharias  Ursinus  in  September  of  the  year 
following.  Olevianus  had  studied  in  the  Genevan 
Academy,  while  Ursinus  had  been  a  pupil  of  Melanch- 
thon  at  Wittenberg.  Both  w^ere  earnest  Calvinists. 
By  these  theologians,  one  twenty-six  and  the  other 
tW'Cnty-eight  years  of  age,  with  the  help  of  other  churchly 
leaders  of  the  Palatinate,  the  famous  Heidelberg  Cate- 
chism was  prepared  in  1562,  and  set  forth  by  order  of 


400  John  Calvin 

the  Elector  in  1563.'  Sweet-spirited,  experiential,  clear, 
moderate,  and  happily-phrased,  the  Heidelberg  Cate- 
chism has  always  been  regarded  as  one  of  the  noblest 
presentations  of  the  Calvinistic  system  in  its  least  con- 
troversial aspects.  As  such,  it  is  the  most  widely  ac- 
cepted symbol  of  the  Calvinistic  faith.  Calvin  himself 
could  not  possibly  have  written  it;  but  Olevianus, 
gratefully  recognisant  of  student  days  at  Geneva  and 
anxious  for  Calvin's  help  in  the  establishment  of  church- 
discipline,  sent  Calvin  an  early  copy,  with  an  affectionate 
letter  in  which  he  addresses  the  Genevan  reformer  as 
^^carissime  patera  "^  Calvin,  in  turn  dedicated  his 
Lectures  on  Jeremiah,  of  1563,  to  the  Elector. ^  The 
discipline  regarding  which  Olevianus  wished  Calvin's 
aid  was  introduced,  though  imperfectly  in  1570,  when 
elders  were  ordered  in  every  parish.  With  greater 
success  public  worship  was  reduced  to  Genevan  sim- 
plicity. 

Though  the  Palatinate  was  carried  back  to  strict 
Lutheranism  under  Frederick's  son,  Lewis  IV.  (1576- 
83)  and  more  than  five  hundred  Calvinistic  ministers 
and  teachers  deprived  of  office,  the  tables  were  turned, 
and  Calvinism  restored  under  Lewis's  brother,  John 
Casimir.  Calvinism  continued  to  win  recognition  in 
Germany  long  after  Calvin's  death,  gaining  Nassau  in 
1577,  a  strong  footing  in  Bremen,  Anhalt,  Baden,  and 
Hesse  before  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  in 


I  Text,  Schaff,  Creeds,  iii.  307-355.    See  M.  Lauterburg,  in  Hauck's 
Realencyklopddie,  x.  164-173;    Schaff,  i.  529-554. 
'^  Opera,  xix.  683;   see  Ibid.,  538. 
3  Ibid.,  XX.  72. 


Influence  Outside  of  Geneva      401 

Brandenburg,  its  most  important  conquest  after  that 
of  the  Palatinate,  in  161 3.  Yet  it  was  Calvin's  theol- 
ogy rather  than  his  discipline  that  thus  won  assent,  and 
the  observation  of  a  modern  German  historian  that  the 
CaMnistic  churches  of  Germany  constituted  "an  in- 
termediate stage  between  pure  Calvinism  and  pure 
Lutheranism  "  ^  is  amply  justified. 

Calvin  for  one  brief  period  looked  beyond  the  bounds 
even  of  Europe,  and  shared  in  an  attempt  to  plant 
the  Evangelical  faith  in  the  New  World.  Like  the  re- 
formers generally,  he  was  strangely  insensitive — so  it 
seems  to  the  modern  Christian  world — to  the  claims 
of  missions.^  But  when  the  treacherous  Villegagnon 
sought  to  strengthen  his  ill-fated  and  mismanaged  col- 
ony in  Brazil,  in  1556,  by  securing  Protestant  recruits 
and  Protestant  preachers,  Calvin  provided  two  min- 
isters from  Geneva  with  letters  to  him  and  encouraged 
them  on  their  enterprise,  which,  though  having  the 
spiritual  welfare  of  the  settlers  primarily  in  view,  did 
not  wholly  forget  the  needs  of  the  natives.^  The  colony 
was  soon  ruined  by  Villegagnon's  ow^n  dupHcity  and 
cruelty,  and  with  it  ended  Calvin's  only  direct  connec- 
tion with  efforts  to  establish  Protestantism  beyond  the 
Atlantic.  Calvin's  system  was  to  be  a  powerful  influ- 
ence in  moulding  the  reHgious  history  of  America.  The 
EngHsh  Puritans,  the  Scotch  and  Irish  Presbyterians, 


1  Kawerau,  op.  ciL,  p.  277. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  409;  G.  Warneck,  in  Hauck's  Realencyklopddie,  xiii. 
127-130;   Ibid.,  History  of  Protestant  Missions,  Eng.  tr.,  pp.  19,  20. 

3  See  letters  of  Villegagnon  and  of  the  ministers  from  Brazil  to  Cal- 
vin, March,  1557,  Opera,  xvi.  433-443.  On  the  colony,  see  Parkman, 
Pioneers  of  France  in  the  New  World,  pp.  16-27. 

a6 


402  John  Calvin 

the  Hollanders,  and  the  Huguenot  exiles  of  France  were 
to  estabhsh  his  faith,  and  to  a  large  extent  his  polity, 
wide  over  the  North  American  continent ;  but  this  work 
was  yet  far  in  the  future  when  he  died. 

Calvin  would  gladly  have  secured  a  more  visible  and 
effective  evidence  of  the  spiritual  union  of  Protestantism, 
and  its  fellowship  in  doctrine  and  in  opposition  to  Rome 
than  proved  feasible  under  the  conditions  of  the  six- 
teenth century.  When  the  EngHsh  archbishop,  Thomas 
Cranmer,  proposed  to  him,  in  March,  1552,  that  a 
council  of  learned  Protestants  should  be  gathered,  to 
promote  the  unity  of  the  Evangelical  churches,  and  to 
offset  the  Roman  council  then  meeting  at  Trent,  Calvin 
welcomed  the  plan  with  enthusiasm,  and  declared  his 
readiness  to  support  it  to  his  utmost ; '  but  it  remained 
only  a  pious  wish. 

In  this  wide  extended  influence  is  to  be  seen  one  of 
Cahdn's  largest  claims  to  permanent  remembrance. 
He  knit  the  forces  of  non-Lutheran  Protestantism  into 
a  real  spiritual  communion  animated  by  similar  ideals 
and  dominated  by  one  view  of  the  Christian  life.  The 
ill-related  Reformation  movements  of  France,  of  the 
Netherlands,  of  Scotland,  to  a  less  degree  of  Poland 
and  Hungary,  found  in  him  their  unifying  force.  He 
gave  them  creed,  discipline,  and  organisation.  He 
formulated  their  theology.  He  inspired  their  martyr- 
courage.  He  taught  them  how  best  to  oppose  Rome. 
He  trained  many  of  their  leaders,  provided  them  a  city 
of  refuge  in  persecution,  and  an  example  of  a  disci- 
plined Christian  community  which  attracted  their  ad- 


I  Letters  in  Opera,  xiv.  306,  312. 


Influence  Outside  of  Geneva     403 

miration  and  imitation.  Over  all  this  vast  region  he 
exercised  an  unoflicial  but  far-reaching  episcopate.  By 
constant  correspondence,  by  personal  acquaintance  and 
appeal  to  those  whom  he  never  met  face  to  face,  by 
the  labours  of  those  who  had  been  his  pupils  and  repro- 
duced his  spirit,  he  moulded  the  growth  and  determined 
the  form  of  the  Reformation  movement  to  a  degree  com- 
parable with  the  work  of  no  other  among  the  reformers 
save  Luther.  But  for  him  the  story  of  the  Reformation 
outside  of  the  land  of  its  birth  would  have  been  vastly 
different.  He  has  been  called  a  "  pope," '  but  the  desig- 
nation is  apt  only  in  its  indication  of  the  geographical 
extent  of  his  authority.  That  authority  was  not  due  to 
office  or  peculiar  advantage  of  station.  It  was  purely 
one  of  mind  over  mind.  But  it  was  all  the  more  real 
and  long  enduring.  Calvin  so  impressed  his  inter- 
pretation of  Christian  truth  and  of  the  Christian  life 
upon  men  that  they  thought  his  thoughts  after  him, 
and  his  ideas  became  part  of  the  mental  fabric  of  a 
large  portion  of  the  inhabitants  of  central  and  western 
Europe,  and  ultimately  of  North  America. 

The  influence  of  Calvinism,  for  more  than  a  century 
after  the  death  of  the  Genevan  reformer,  was  the  most 
potent  force  in  western  Europe  in  the  development  of 
civil  liberty.  What  the  modern  world  owes  to  it  is 
almost  incalculable.  Yet  Calvin  was  never  by  inten- 
tion a  political  reformer.  His  interests  were  always 
overwhelmingly  religious;  and  the  results  of  Calvinism 
in  the  cause  of  religious  freedom  were  the  indirect  and 


I  E.g.  W.  H.  Frere,  The  English  Church  in  the  Reigns  of  Elizabeth 
and  James  I.,  p.  78. 


404  John  Calvin 

unexpected,  rather  than  the  anticipated  consequences 
of  his  work.  They  were  the  effect  of  the  logic  of  Cal- 
vin's principles,  rather  than  any  conscious  part  of  his 
reformatory  aim. 

Calvin's  views  on  civil  government  are  succinctly 
stated  in  the  Institutes  and  come  to  their  fullest  expres- 
sion in  the  final  form  of  that  work  issued  in  1559.  Its 
object  is,' — 

that  no  idolatry,  no  blasphemy  against  the  name  of  God, 
no  calumnies  against  His  truth,  nor  other  offences  to  re- 
ligion, break  out  and  be  disseminated  among  the  people; 
that  the  public  quiet  be  not  disturbed,  that  every  man's 
property  be  kept  secure,  that  men  may  carry  on  innocent 
commerce  with  each  other,  that  honesty  and  modesty  be 
cultivated;  in  short,  that  a  public  form  of  religion  may  exist 
among  Christians,  and  humanity  among  men. 

In  Calvin's  opinion  and  practice  the  preservation  of 
rehgion  is  an  even  more  important  function  of  the  State 
than  the  maintenance  of  order.  As  to  the  various 
types  of  government,  each  has  its  characteristic  dangers. 
No  one  is  absolutely  best :  ^ — 

Monarchy  is  prone  to  tyranny.  In  an  aristocracy,  again, 
the  tendency  is  not  less  to  the  faction  of  a  few,  while  in  popu- 
lar ascendancy  there  is  the  strongest  tendency  to  sedition. 


1  7«5/.,  IV.  XX.  3;  Beveridge's  translation,  Edinburgh,  1846.  See 
also  W.  A.  Dunning,  A  History  of  Political  Theories  from  Luther  to 
Montesquieu,  pp.  26-33. 

2  Ibid.,  IV.  XX.  8. 


Influence  Outside  of  Geneva      405 

His  own  preference,  characteristic  alike  of  his  tem- 
perament and  of  his  Genevan  environment  Ls  for 
"aristocracy,  either  pure  or  modified  by  popular 
government";  but  no  one  form  is  adapted  to  all 
times  and  places,  nor  ought  changes  to  be  agitated, 
for,^— 

if  it  has  pleased  Him  [God]  to  appoint  kings  over  king- 
doms, and  senates  or  burgomasters  over  free  states,  whatever 
be  the  form  which  He  has  appointed  in  the  places  in  which 
we  live,  our  duty  is  to  obey  and  submit. 

To  Calvin's  mind  the  obligation  of  obedience  even 
to  bad  rulers  is  no  less  complete :  '^ — 

If  we  have  respect  to  the  Word  of  God,  it  will  lead  us 
farther,  and  make  us  subject  not  only  to  the  authority  of 
those  princes  who  honestly  and  faithfully  perform  their 
duty  toward  us,  but  all  princes,  by  whatever  means  they 
have  so  become,  although  there  is  nothing  they  less  perform 
than  the  duty  of  princes. 

Diets  and  parliaments,  indeed,  have  the  duty  of  re- 
straining the  tyranny  of  unworthy  rulers;  but  the  pri- 
vate citizen  must  submit,  save  with  one  fundamentally 
important  exception:^ — 

We  are  subject  to  the  men  who  rule  over  us,  but 
subject   only   in   the   Lord.     If   they   command   anything 


1  Inst.,  IV.  XX.  8. 

2  Ihid.,  IV.  XX.  25. 

3  Ihid.,  IV.  XX.  32. 


4o6  John  Calvin 

against  Him,  let  us  not  pay  the  least  regard  to  it,  nor  be 
moved  by  all  the  dignity  which  they  possess  as  magistrates. 

There  is  little  in  these  utterances  of  Calvin's  mature 
judgment,  except  in  that  last  quoted,  to  stimulate  civil 
freedom;  but  the  principle  that  when  God  commands, 
all  obedience  to  human  rulers  ceases  is  of  far-reaching 
influence.  It  struck  a  note  already  sounded  by  Zwin- 
gH,  that,  more  than  any  other,  served  to  interpret  the 
intellectual  individuahsm  of  the  Renaissance  and  the 
rehgious  individualism  of  the  Reformation  in  terms  of 
poHtical  freedom.  Who  shall  decide  whether  a  com- 
mand of  a  ruler  is  contrary  to  the  will  of  God,  if  not 
each  thinking  man,  weighing  it  by  the  tests  of  his  own 
divinely  implanted  judgment?  Calvin  formulated  no 
such  conclusion ;  but  his  principle  inevitably  tended  to 
make  men  question  the  rightfulness  of  human  statutes 
and  institutions,  and  to  demand  some  other  justifi- 
cation for  obnoxious  laws  than  the  mere  fact  of  their 
enactment  by  those  in  authority. 

Calvin's  ecclesiastical  constitution,  moreover,  made 
for  civil  freedom,  especially  in  the  conditions  of  his  age. 
His  insistence  that  the  Church,  though  served  by  the 
State,  was  yet  independent  of  it,  gave  a  place,  as  in 
Scotland  and  in  France,  if  not  so  fully  in  his  own  Ge- 
nevan practice,  for  the  development  of  a  system  of  re- 
presentative ecclesiastical  institutions  largely  free  from 
State  control.  In  the  Scottish  General  Assembly,  for 
instance,  rather  than  in  the  Scottish  ParHament,  was 
to  be  found  throughout  the  latter  portion  of  the  six- 
teenth and  the  whole  of  the  seventeenth  centuries  the 


Influence   Outside  of  Geneva     407 

truer  embodiment  of  the  wishes  and  hopes  of  the  peo- 
ple of  Scotland.  French  Protestantism,  from  1559 
onward,  found  expression  in  a  series  of  national  synods 
held  in  the  face  of  a  hostile  government. 

The  system  of  Cluirch-discipline  characteristic  of 
Calvin,  executed  in  the  congregation,  or  in  Geneva  as 
the  work  of  the  united  Church  of  the  city,  by  an  aris- 
tocracy of  the  minister  or  ministers  and  his  associated 
lay  elders,  made  every  Calvinistic  parish  a  school  of 
government  in  a  sense  true  of  no  other  communion  of 
the  Reformation  age;  while  his  principle  that  ofiicers 
should  serve  only  with  the  consent  of  the  congregation 
over  which  they  were  placed,  however  imperfectly 
worked  out  under  Genevan  conditions,  had  in  it  the 
germ  of  a  real  responsibiUty  of  ecclesiastical  gover- 
nors to  those  whom  they  ruled.  Calvin  did  not  carry 
the  principle  to  its  logical  consequences;  but  it  is  im- 
possible for  men  long  to  hold  one  theory  in  ecclesias- 
tical and  another  in  civil  government.  If  church-ofhcers 
are  responsible  to  the  people  they  serve,  why  not  kings 
and  magistrates?  Scotland  and  Puritan  England 
asked  the  question  and  WTote  the  answer  large  in  the 
histor}^  of  the  seventeenth  century.  King  James  I.,  of 
England,  voiced  the  results  of  this  aspect  of  Calvinism, 
and  its  effects  on  such  theories  of  the  absolute  monarchy 
as  he  entertained,  when  he  declared  at  the  Hampton 
Court  Conference  in  1604:' — 

A  Scottish  Presbytery  as  well  agreth  with  a  Monarchy, 
as  God  and  the  Devill.     Then  Jacke,  and  Tom,  and  Will, 

I  W.  Barlow,  The  Summe  and  Substance  of  the  Conference,  London, 
1638,  p.  81. 


4o8  John  Calvin 

and  Dick  shall  meet,  and  at  their  pleasures  censure  me  and 
my  Councell,  and  all  our  proceedings. 

Calvin's  aristocratic  soul  might  have  revolted  as 
much  as  the  Stuart  King's  from  the  democratic  freedom 
thus  satirised;  but  it  was  none  the  less  a  natural  fruit 
of  his  system. 

The  Cahdnistic  theory  of  the  Church  furnished, 
moreover,  the  only  effective  system  in  the  Reformation 
age  for  the  organisation  of  an  oppressed  Protestant 
party.  Lutheranism,  Anglicanism,  and  Zwinglianism 
were  all  dependent  upon  the  State.  Calvinism  could 
be  effective  without  state-support,  as  France,  Holland, 
Scotland,  and  England  were  to  bear  abundant  witness. 
But  it  was  only  where  Calvinism  did  its  work  as  a  dis- 
cipline as  well  as  a  theology  that  its  services  to  civil 
liberty  were  considerable.  Where,  as  in  Germany,  its 
position  was  that  of  a  representative  of  a  certain  type 
of  doctrine,  and  not  also  of  a  peculiar  conception  of 
the  Christian  Hfe,  its  effect  on  poHtical  thought  was  in- 
conspicuous. 


CHAPTER   XV 

Calvin's  theology 

WITHIN  the  brief  compass  allotted  to  this  vol- 
ume no  adequately  comprehensive  treatment 
can  be  given  to  so  extensive  a  theme  as  Calvin's  theol- 
ogy; but  its  salient  features  must  at  least  be  cursorily 
described.  As  has  already  been  pointed  out,  Calvin 
built  on  the  general  foundation  laid  by  the  reformers 
who  had  preceded  him.  To  Luther  and  to  Bucer  he 
ov^^ed  the  basal  elements  of  his  own  theologic  structure. 
Without  their  antecedent  work — certainly  without  that 
of  Luther — his  would  never  have  been  accomphshed. 
Yet  he  so  clarified  and  systematised  Evangelical  theol- 
ogy, and  so  stamped  his  own  genius  upon  its  presenta- 
tion, that  he  ranks  pre-eminently  as  the  theologian 
among  the  reformers,  and  as  one  of  the  three  or  four 
greatest  expounders  of  rehgious  truth  in  Christian  his- 
tory. This  work  has  its  illustration  in  his  Commentaries, 
and  minor  treatises;  but  above  all  in  the  Institutes, 
which  came  to  its  completeness  in  the  classic  edition 

Foremost  in  Calvin's  system  was  his  emphasis  on  the 
great  thought  of  God.  His  sovereignty  extends  over 
all  persons  and  events  from  eternity  to  eternity.     His 


I  Opera,  ii.     The  quotations  in  this  chapter  are  from  Beveridge's 
translation,  Edinburgh,  3  vols.,  1845-46. 

[409I 


4IO  John  Calvin 

will  is  the  ground  of  all  that  exists.  His  glory  is  the 
object  of  all  the  created  universe.  He  is  the  sole  source 
of  all  good  everywhere,  and  in  obedience  to  Him  alone 
is  human  society  or  individual  action  rightfully  ordered. 
His  honour  is  the  first  object  of  jealous  maintenance 
by  the  magistrate,  or  of  regard  by  the  citizen.  Good 
laws  are  but  the  embodiment  of  His  will;  and  complete 
surrender  to  Him  is  man's  prime  duty  and  only  com- 
fort. His  kingly  sovereignty,  His  glorious  majesty,  His 
all-perfect  and  all-controlHng  will  are  the  highest  ob- 
jects of  man's  adoration,  and  the  prime  concern  of  all 
human  interest.  By  His  permission  kings  rule,  and 
for  each  member  of  the  human  race  He  has  an  unalter- 
able and  supremely  wise  plan  from  all  eternity.  In- 
finitely transcending  the  world  of  created  things,  in 
honour,  dignity,  and  power,  God  touches  it,  and  all 
human  Hfe,  at  every  point  with  His  righteous  law  and 
majestic  sway.  "Our  very  being  is  nothing  else  than 
subsistence  in  God  alone.'"  To  know  Him  is  the  su- 
preme object  of  human  attainment. 

But  how  is  God  to  be  known  ?  Cahdn  answers  that 
sufficient  knowledge  of  Him  is  implanted  in  the  human 
mind  to  leave  the  wicked  without  excuse,  but  this  nat- 
ural theology  is  supplemented  and  made  clear  by  "an- 
other and  better  help," — that  of  the  divine  revelation 
in  the  Scriptures,  the  writers  of  which  were  "sure  and 
authentic  amanuenses  of  the  Holy  Spirit."  ^  By  these 
alone  is  God  adequately  made  known.  "There  is  an 
inseparable  relation  between  faith  and  the  Word,  and 


1  Institutes,  Bk.  I.,  chapter  i.,  section  i. 

2  IV.  viii.  9. 


Q     Sf 

-         T3 


O   t 


c  i 


Theology  411 

these  can  no  more  be  disconnected  from  each  other 
than  rays  of  light  from  the  sun." '  "The  full  authority 
which  [the  Scriptures]  ought  to  possess  with  the  faith- 
ful is  not  recognised,  unless  they  are  believed  to  have 
come  from  heaven,  as  directly  as  if  God  had  been  heard 
giving  utterance  to  them." ""  This  conviction  can,  in- 
deed, be  fortified  by  arguments  drawn  from  their  ar- 
rangement, dignity,  truth,  simpHcity,  and  efficacy; 
"still  it  is  preposterous  to  attempt,  by  discussion,  to 
rear  up  a  full  faith  in  Scripture."  Our  confidence 
"must  be  derived  from  a  higher  source  than  human 
conjectures,  judgments,  or  reasons;  namely,  the  secret 
testimony  of  the  Spirit."  ^  The  Bible  is  therefore  no 
arbitrary  body  of  truth  to  be  accepted  on  the  authority 
of  the  Church  or  of  external  miracles.  It  approves  it- 
self to  men  by  its  own  clear  illumination;  by  the  re- 
sponse of  the  soul  enhghtened  by  the  Spirit  of  God  to 
the  voice  of  the  same  Spirit  speaking  through  its  pages. 
That  testimony  carries  with  it  acceptance  of  all  that 
the  Scriptures  contain.  "Those  who  are  inwardly 
taught  by  the  Holy  Spirit  acquiesce  implicitly  in  Script- 
ure." ^  It  is  no  mere  Christian  consciousness  selecting 
and  appropriating  truth  wherever  truth  can  be  found; 
it  is  Truth  itself  awakening  recognition  of  its  clear, 
ample,  and  final  authority  in  the  divinely  enlightened 
soul.  In  this  doctrine  of  the  absolute  and  unique  au- 
thority of  the  Word  of  God,  Calvin  stood  on  ground 


'  III.  ii.  6. 
2 1,  vii.  I. 
3  I.  vii.  4.  • 
4 1,  vii.  5. 


412  John  Calvin 

common  to  all  the  reformers;  and  his  teaching  as  to 
the  immediate  witness  of  the  Holy  Spirit  had  been  an- 
ticipated, though  less  clearly  by  Luther;^  but  his  pre- 
sentation of  this  cardinal  principle  of  the  Reformation 
is  the  amplest  that  it  had  yet  received,  and  may  be  said 
to  be  its  classic  expression.  Far  more  than  Luther, 
however,  Calvin  treated  the  Scriptures  as  a  new  law 
regulative  of  the  Christian  life. 

While  God  is  thus  the  source  of  all  that  is  good,  man 
in  his  present  fallen  state  is  in  himself  wholly  bad.  As 
created  in  Adam — and  Adam  with  Calvin  as  with 
Augtstine  is  a  personage  of  great  significance — man 
was  made  in  the  image  of  God,  with  all  the  good 
endowments  and  quaHties  therein  impHed ;  but  he  fell 
by  "infidehty,"  ambition,  and  pride,  together  with 
"ingratitude,"  and  that  fall  involved  all  the  race  in 
original  sin, — ''a  hereditary  corruption  and  depravity  of 
our  nature,  extending  to  all  the  parts  of  the  soul,  which 
first  makes  us  obnoxious  to  the  wrath  of  God,  and  then 
produces  in  us  works  which  in  Scripture  are  termed 
works  of  the  flesh."  ^  The  consequences  are  a  total 
depravity  of  all  human  nature.  "The  soul,  when 
plunged  into  that  deadly  abyss,  not  only  labours  under 
vice,  but  is  altogether  devoid  of  good."  3  As  with  Au- 
gustine, so  in  Calvin's  conception,  man  is  absolutely 
unable  to  aid  himself  in  his  fallen  estate;  nor  has  he 
even  a  co-operant  part,  as  with  Melanchthon,  in  a  sal- 

I  F.  Loofs,  Leitjaden  zum  Studium  der  Dogmengeschichte,  3rd  ed., 

PP- 373.  431- 
a  II.  i.  4,  8. 
3II.  iii.  2. 


Theology  413 

vation  begun  and  made  possible  by  God.  "The  will 
is  enchained  as  the  slave  of  sin,  it  cannot  make  a  move- 
ment towards  goodness,  far  less  steadily  pursue  it. 
Every  such  movement  is  the  first  step  in  that  conver- 
sion to  God,  which  in  Scripture  is  entirely  ascribed  to 
divine  grace."  ^  True,  God  has  not  so  left  man  in  his 
ruin  as  to  deprive  him  of  all  aid  to  righteous  action. 
"Whatever  excellent  endowments  appear  in  unbe- 
lievers are  divine  gifts.  .  .  .  He  visits  those  who  culti- 
vate virtue  with  many  temporal  blessings,  .  .  .  [but] 
those  virtues,  or  rather  images  of  virtues,  of  whatever 
kind,  are  divine  gifts,  since  there  is  nothing  in  any  de- 
gree praiseworthy  which  proceeds  not  from  Him."^ 
In  an  evil  plight,  all  men  are  incapable  of  themselves 
of  real  good;  their  condition  is  one  of  deserved,  yet 
helpless,  condemnation. 

From  this  hopeless  state  some  men  are  undeservedly 
rescued  by  the  mercy  of  God.  The  means  by  which 
this  deliverance  is  effected  is  by  the  work  of  Christ; 
by  which  in  His  threefold  office  of  prophet,  priest,  and 
king  He  wrought  salvation  for  them.  "  Christ,  in  His 
death,  was  offered  to  the  Father  as  a  propitiatory  vic- 
tim." "Not  only  was  the  body  of  Christ  given  up  as 
the  price  of  redemption,  but  that  which  was  a  greater 
and  more  excellent  price — that  He  bore  in  His  soul  the 
tortures  of  condemned  and  ruined  man."^  He  paid 
the  penalty  due  for  the  sins  of  those  in  w^hose  behalf  he 
died.     Yet  this  propitiation  of  the  Father  implied  no 


'  II.  iii.  5. 
^  III.  xiv.  2. 
3  II.  x\d.  6,  10. 


414  John  Calvin 

diversity  of  feeling  between  the  persons  of  the  Trinity. 
With  Scotist  emphasis  on  the  unconditioned  will  of  God 
as  the  highest  object  in  the  universe,  Calvin  declares 
that  even  ''Christ  could  not  merit  anything  save  by  the 
good  pleasure  of  God."^  His  sacrifice  w^as  of  value 
because  the  Father  chose  to  put  value  on  it,  and  to  order 
it  as  the  way  of  salvation.  Hence  Father  and  Son  were 
at  one  in  pro\dding,  offering,  and  accepting  the  ransom. 
"The  love  of  God"  is  its  "chief  cause  or  origin."^ 

But  all  that  Christ  has  wrought  is  without  avail 
unless  it  becomes  man's  personal  possession.  "So  long 
as  we  are  without  Christ  and  separated  from  Him,  noth- 
ing which  He  suffered  and  did  for  the  salvation  of  the 
human  race  is  of  the  least  benefit  to  us."  "He  must 
become  ours  and  dwell  in  us."  He  is  "our  Head."^ 
This  indwelling  is  effected  by  faith  on  man's  part ;  but 
this  faith,  which,  as  with  Paul  and  Luther,  is  no  mere 
acceptance  of  historic  facts  or  of  a  system  of  behef,  but 
a  vital  union  in  a  new  Hfe  between  the  believer  and 
Christ,  is  due  to  nothing  in  man,  but  has  its  origin  in 
"the  secret  efficacy  of  the  Spirit."^  Its  consequence 
and  inseparable  accompaniment  is  repentance.  While 
genuine  disciples  may  at  times  be  assailed  by  doubts, 
"full  assurance"  is  a  proper  attribute  of  this  faith, 
doubts  must  be  temporary,  and  "he  only  is  a  true  be- 
Hever  who,  firmly  persuaded  that  God  is  reconciled 
and  is  a  kind  Father  to  him,  hopes  every  thing  from 


I II.  xvii.  I. 

^  II.  xvii.  2.     Compare  G.  B.  Stevens,  The  Christian  Doctrine  of 
Salvation,  pp.  153,  154. 

3  III.  i.  I. 

4  Ibid. 


Theology  415 

His  kindness,  who,  trusting  to  the  promises  of  the  di- 
vine favour,  with  undoubting  confidence  anticipates 
salvation." ' 

The  consequence  of  this  faith  is  the  Christian  life. 
*'  Christ  cannot  be  known  without  the  sanctification  of 
His  Spirit,  therefore  faith  cannot  possibly  be  disjoined 
from  pious  affection."^  That  life,  far  more  than  in 
Luther's  conception  of  it,  is  one  of  struggle  and  effort 
in  which  the  Law,  though  no  longer  the  test  of  accept- 
ance with  God,  is  the  stimulus  to  endeavour.  "The 
whole  hves  of  Christians  ought  to  be  a  kind  of  aspira- 
tion after  piety,  seeing  they  are  called  unto  holiness. 
The  office  of  the  Law  is  to  excite  them  to  the  study  of 
purity  and  hoHness  by  reminding  them  of  their  duty."^ 
Calvin  thus  saves  himself,  in  spite  of  his  doctrines  of 
election,  irresistible  grace,  and  perseverance,  from  any 
possible  antinomianism.  He  leaves  room  for  a  con- 
ception of  "works"  as  strenuous  and  as  effort-demand- 
ing as  any  claimed  by  the  Roman  communion,  though 
very  different  in  relation  to  the  accomplishment  of  sal- 
vation. "We  are  justified  not  without;  and  yet  not 
by  works,  since  in  the  participation  of  Christ,  by  which 
we  are  justified,  is  contained  not  less  sanctification 
than  justification." 4  "If  the  end  of  election  is  holiness 
of  life,  it  ought  to  arouse  and  stimulate  us  strenuously 
to  aspire  to  it,  instead  of  serving  as  a  pretext  for  sloth."  s 

Calvin  is  next  confronted  by  the  evident  fact  that 


I  Ill.ii.  15,  16. 
^III.ii.8. 

3  III.  Xix.  2. 

4  III.  xvi.  I. 

s  III.  xxiii.  12. 


4i6  John  Calvin 

men  are  very  unlike  in  their  reception  of  the  Gospel. 
"Among  a  hundred  to  whom  the  same  discourse  is  de- 
Uvered,  twenty,  perhaps,  receive  it  with  the  prompt 
obedience  of  faith;  the  others  set  no  value  upon  it,  or 
deride,  or  spurn,  or  abominate  it."  ^  Holding,  as  Cal- 
vin does,  that  all  good  is  from  God,  and  viewing  man 
as  helpless  to  initiate  or  resist  his  conversion,  Calvin 
can  but  ascribe  this  dissimilarity  to  "the  mere  pleasure 
of  God."  He  was  not  peculiar  in  this  view.  The 
Reformation  age  was  markedly  one  of  revived  Augus- 
tinianism.  In  its  essential  features  the  doctrine  of  elec- 
tion had  been  equally  the  property  of  Luther  and 
ZwingH.  Melanchthon,  under  the  influence  of  his  be- 
lief in  the  power  of  the  human  will  to  co-operate  with 
or  resist  the  divine  leadings,  was  swinging  away  from 
it,  and  was  ultimately  to  lead  the  Lutheran  churches  in 
the  direction  that  he  pointed  out ;  but  an  acceptance  of 
predestination  was  widely  characteristic  of  the  theology 
of  the  age.  Yet  the  use  which  Calvin  made  of  the  doc- 
trine is  far  more  vital  than  that  of  Luther,  for  example. 
To  Luther  the  prime  question  was  always,  how  are 
men  saved  ?  When  he  asked  why,  and  he  did  not  often 
ask  the  question,  he  gave  the  Augustinian  answer.  To 
Calvin,  as  to  Bucer  before  him,  the  problem  of  the  origin 
of  salvation  was  of  much  more  fundamental  importance, 
and  this  significance  was  strengthened  by  his  contro- 
versies with  Bolsec.  Yet  it  is  an  error  to  describe 
predestination  as  the  "central  doctrine"  of  Calvinism,^ 


I  III.  xxiv.  12. 

^  A.  Schweizer,  Die  protestantischen  Centraldogmen,  i.  57;   see    R. 
Seeberg,  Lehrhuch  der  Dogmengeschichte,  ii.  397. 


Theology  417 

though  it  became  so  under  his  successors  and  inter- 
preters. Its  prime  value  for  him  was  ahvays  its  com- 
fort as  giving  assurance  of  salvation  to  the  Christian 
behever. 

Calvin  advanced  beyond  Augustine  in  two  ways. 
The  great  African  theologian  had  represented  God  as 
active  in  election  to  Hfe  only.  The  lost  were  simply 
passed  by  and  left  to  the  deserved  consequences  of  sin. 
To  Calvin's  thinking,  election  and  reprobation  are  both 
alike  manifestations  of  the  di\ine  activity.  In  Augus- 
tine's estimate,  not  all  behevers  even  are  given  the  grace 
of  perseverance.  With  Calvin  all  in  whom  God  has 
begun  the  work  of  salvation  would  have  it  brought  to 
complete  fruition.  Calvin's  severe  logic,  insistent  that 
all  salvation  is  independent  of  merit,  led  him  to  assert 
that  damnation  is  equally  antecedent  to  and  indepen- 
dent of  demerit.  The  lost  do  indeed  deserve  their  fate; 
but  "if  we  cannot  assign  any  reason  for  His  bestowing 
mercy  on  His  people,  but  just  that  it  so  pleases  Him, 
neither  can  we  have  any  reason  for  His  reprobating 
others  but  His  will."  The  sole  cause  of  salvation  or  of 
loss  is  the  divine  choice:^ — 

The  will  of  God  is  the  supreme  rule  of  righteousness, 
so  that  everything  which  He  wills  must  be  held  to  be 
righteous  by  the  mere  fact  of  His  willing  it.  Therefore, 
when  it  is  asked  why  the  Lord  did  so,  we  must  answer, 
Because  He  pleased.  But  if  you  proceed  further  to  ask 
why  He  pleased,  you  ask  for  something  greater  and  more 
sublime  than  the  will  of  God,  and  nothing  such  can  be 
found. 


III.  xxii.  11;   xxiii.  2. 
27 


4i8  John  Calvin 

Whether  this  Scotist  doctrine  of  the  rightfulness  of  all 
that  God  wills  by  the  mere  fact  of  His  willing  it  leaves 
God  a  moral  character  it  is  perhaps  useless  to  inquire. 
The  thesis  here  advocated  has  always  had  its  earnest 
supporters  and  its  determined  critics.  But  of  the 
comfort  which  Calvin  and  his  disciples  drew  from  the 
doctrine  of  election  there  can  be  no  question.  To  a 
persecuted  Protestant  of  Paris  it  must  have  been  an 
unspeakable  consolation  to  feel  that  God  had  a  plan 
of  salvation  for  him,  individually,  from  all  eternity, 
and  that  nothing  that  priest  or  king  could  do  could 
frustrate  the  divine  purpose  in  his  behalf.  Nor  was 
it  less  a  source  of  strength  to  one  profoundly  con- 
scious of  his  own  sinfuhiess  to  feel  that  his  salvation 
was  based  on  the  unshakable  rock  of  the  decree  of 
God  Himself.  Reprobation,  too,  gave  an  explanation 
for  the  hostility  of  rulers  to  the  Evangelical  cause, 
and  for  the  great  number  of  those  who,  in  that  age, 
as  in  any  epoch,  were  notoriously  irreligious  of  Hfe. 
Calvin  was  far  too  poHtic  a  man  to  suggest  that  a 
Henry  II.  or  a  Catherine  de'  Medici  were  of  the  repro- 
bate; but  it  must  have  been  a  grim  satisfaction  for 
those  under  their  persecuting  sway  to  beUeve  that  they 
and  others  like  them  "were  raised  up  by  the  just  but 
inscrutable  judgment  of  God,  to  show  forth  His  glory 
by  their  condemnation."  ^ 

Calvin's  doctrine  of  the  Church  has  often  come  under 
our  notice  in  this  volume.  It  is  the  means  by  which 
we  are  nourished  in  the  Christian  Hfe.  "To  those  to 
whom  [God]  is  a  Father,  the  Church  must  also  be  a 


I  III.  xxiv.  14. 


Theology  419 

mother."  '  Following  the  line  already  marked  out  by 
Wyclif,  Huss,  and  Zwingli,  Calvin  dcfmcs  the  Church 
in  the  last  analysis  as  "all  the  elect  of  God,  including 
in  the  number  even  those  who  have  departed  this  life." " 
But,  besides  its  application  to  this  invisible  fellowship, 
the  name  "Church"  is  properly  used  of  "the  whole 
body  of  mankind  scattered  throughout  the  world  w^ho 
profess  to  worship  one  God  and  Christ,  who  by  bap- 
tism are  initiated  into  the  faith,  by  partaking  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  profess  unity  in  true  doctrine  and  charity, 
agree  in  holding  the  Word  of  the  Lord,  and  observe  the 
ministry  which  Christ  has  appointed  for  the  preaching 
of  it."  3  Whoever  alienates  himself  from  it  is  a  "deserter 
of  religion."  Yet  to  leave  the  Papacy  is  in  no  sense 
to  leave  the  Church,  for  "it  is  certain  that  there  is  no 
Church  where  lying  and  falsehood  have  usurped  the 
ascendency."  ^  Calvin  admits,  however,  that  even  in 
the  Roman  communion  some  vestiges  of  the  Church 
exist,  though  in  ruins. 

This  visible  Church  is  properly  governed  only  by 
officers  of  divine  appointment  made  known  in  the  New 
Testament.  These  are  pastors,  teachers,  elders,  and 
deacons, — partly  clerical  and  partly  lay  office-bearers, 
for  in  Calvin's  system  the  recognition  of  the  rights  of 
the  layman,  characteristic  of  the  whole  Reformation 
movement,  comes  to  its  completest  development.  This 
recognition  receives  further  illustration  in  that  the  offi- 


iiv.  i.  I. 
^  IV.  i.  2. 
3  IV.  i.  7. 
-♦IV.ii.  I. 


42o;  John  Calvin 

cers  of  the  Calvinistic  churches,  unlike  those  of  the  Ro- 
man, Anglican,  Lutheran,  and  Zwinglian  communions, 
properly  enter  on  their  charges  only  with  the  assent  of 
the  congregation  that  they  serve.  Their  "call"  is  two- 
fold,— the  secret  incHnation  which  has  God  as  its  author, 
and  their  election* 'on  the  consent  and  approbation  of  the 
people."  '  Peculiar  circumstances  at  Geneva  disposed 
Calvin  to  regard  that  "consent  of  the  people"  as  there 
expressed  by  the  city  government;  but  elsewhere,  es- 
pecially where  Calvinism  was  face  to  face  with  hostile 
civil  authority,  the  system  developed  its  more  normal 
form. 

One  main  object  of  the  establishment  of  church- 
ofhcers  is  discipHne,  the  importance  of  which  in  the 
Calvinistic  system,  as  contrasted  with  other  theories  of 
the  Church  current  in  the  Reformation  age,  there  has 
been  frequent  occasion  to  point  out.  "As  the  saving 
doctrine  of  Christ  is  the  life  of  the  Church,  so  discipUne 
is,  as  it  were,  its  sinews."  It  "  is  altogether  distinct  from 
civil  government";  and  belongs  "to  the  consistor}^  of 
elders,  which  [is]  in  the  Church  what  a  council  is  in  a 
city."  "The  legitimate  course  to  be  taken  in  excom- 
munication ...  is  not  for  the  elders  alone  to  act  apart 
from  others,  but  with  the  knowledge  and  approbation 
of  the  Church,  so  that  the  body  of  the  people,  without 
regulating  the  procedure,  may,  as  witnesses  and  guar- 
dians, observe  it,  and  prevent  the  few  from  doing 
anything  capriciously."  ^ 

This  ecclesiastical  independence  which  Calvin  em- 


I IV.  iii.  15. 

^  IV.  xi.  I,  6;  xii.  i,  7. 


Theology  421 

phasised  more  than  any  other  of  the  reformers  and  for 
which  he  fought  with  such  intensity  and  persistence 
at  Geneva,  was  very  far,  however,  from  implying  that 
civil  government  had  no  duties  toward  the  Church. 
Minister  and  magistrate  were  alike  charged  with  the 
administration  of  government  in  the  name  of  God. 
Further  than  excommunication  the  Church  could  not 
go.  When  that  failed  or  was  insufficient  for  the  enor- 
mity of  the  offence,  as  in  case  of  flagrant  heresy  or 
crime,  the  magistrate,  as  equally  charged  with  main- 
taining the  honour  of  God,  must  apply  his  civil  pen- 
alties. His  duty  it  was  to  defend,  support,  and  care 
for  the  Church,  though  in  its  proper  sphere  the  Church 
was  to  be  independent  of  his  control.  Calvin  thus  took 
up  into  his  system  the  characteristic  theory  of  the 
middle  ages  regarding  this  matter,  carefully  guarding 
it,  however,  from  becoming,  as  the  mediaeval  contention 
too  often  was,  an  assertion  of  the  supremacy  of  the 
Church  over  the  State.  It  was  to  become  the  view  of 
Puritanism  and  to  have  ample  illustration,  for  instance, 
in  the  early  history  of  New  England. 

Characteristic  of  Calvin  is  his  doctrine  of  the  Sacra- 
ments, and  of  the  Lord's  Supper  in  particular. 
Nowhere  was  his  desire  for  the  union  of  divided  Pro- 
testantism more  evident  than  in  the  treatment  of  these 
vexed  questions,  in  spite  of  the  heat  of  his  later  polemic 
with  Westphal  and  Hesshusen.^  He  stood,  as  has  al- 
ready been  pointed  out,  in  an  intermediate  position 
between  Luther  and  ZwingH.  To  Calvin  the  value  of  a 
sacrament  is  that  of  a  seal  attesting  God's  grace.     "It 


^  Ante,  p.  398. 


422  John  Calvin 

is  an  external  sign,  by  which  the  Lord  seals  on  our 
consciences  His  promises  of  goodwill  toward  us,  in 
order  to  sustain  the  weakness  of  our  faith,  and  we  in 
turn  testify  our  piety  towards  Him." '  Baptism  ''is  a 
kind  of  sealed  instrument  by  which  He  assures  us  that 
all  our  sins  are  so  deleted,  covered,  and  effaced  that 
they  will  never  come  into  His  sight." ""  The  benefit  is 
not  wrought  by  the  sacrament  itself;  it  accompanies  it, 
and  is  received  only  by  the  predestinate.  "From  this 
sacrament,  as  from  all  others,  we  gain  nothing,  unless 
in  so  far  as  we  receive  in  faith."  To  them  it  is  a  per- 
petual witness  to  forgiveness,  so  that  there  is  no  room 
for  the  Roman  doctrine  of  penance.  "The  godly  may, 
. . .  whenever  they  are  vexed  by  a  consciousness  of  their 
sins,  recall  the  remembrance  of  their  baptism,  that  they 
may  thereby  assure  themselves  of  that  sole  and  per- 
petual ablution  which  we  have  in  the  blood  of  Christ."  ^ 
The  rite,  Calvin  argues  at  great  length,  and  with 
much  use  of  the  analogy  of  circumcision,  is  to  be  ad- 
ministered to  infants  as  well  as  to  those  of  years  of 
intelligence. 

In  Calvin's  conception,  as  in  that  of  the  Roman  and 
Lutheran  communions,  whatever  else  the  Lord's  Supper 
may  signify,  it  is  "a  spiritual  feast,  at  which  Christ 
testifies  that  He  Himself  is  Hving  bread  on  which  our 
souls  feed  for  a  true  and  blessed  immortahty."  ^    The 


I  IV.  xiv.  I.     See  a  most  valuable  brief  treatment  of  Calvin's  views 
in  Seeberg,  Lehrbuch  der  Dogmengeschichte,  ii.  401-409. 
MV.xv.  I. 
3  IV.  XV.  4,  15. 
■♦  IV.  xvii.  I. 


Theology  423 

heart  of  the  discussion  in  the  Reformation  age  was,  how- 
ever, as  to  the  nature  of  Christ's  presence  in  this  sacra- 
ment. Luther  had  insistently  asserted,  in  substantial 
agreement  with  the  older  Church,  that  that  presence  is 
physical.  Zwingli  rejected  all  physical  presence,  made 
the  chief  value  of  the  Supper  its  memorial  character, 
and  reduced  the  nourishment  of  the  participating 
soul  to  a  stimulation  of  faith  in  His  death  for  us. 
To  Calvin's  thinking,  as  to  Zwingli's,  it  seemed 
impossible  that  Christ's  physical  body  could  be  at 
the  same  time  in  heaven  and  in  many  places  on 
earth.  "Let  no  property  be  assigned  to  His  body 
inconsistent  with  His  human  nature."  ^  But  Calvin's 
rehgious  feeHng  revolted,  no  less  than  Luther's, 
from  any  representation  that  did  not  imply  a  tme 
presence  of  Christ  in  the  Supper  and  that  "only  makes 
us  partakers  of  the  spirit,  omitting  all  mention  of  flesh 
and  blood."  "By  the  symbols  of  bread  and  wine, 
Christ,  His  body  and  His  blood,  are  truly  exhibited  to 
us." ""  Yet  this  participation  is  spiritual  and  by  faith. 
"It  is  enough  for  us,  that  Christ,  out  of  the  substance  of 
His  flesh,  breathes  Hfe  into  our  souls,  nay,  diffuses  His 
own  life  into  us,  though  the  real  flesh  of  Christ  does 
not  enter  us."^  Christ  "breathes"  into  the  disciple 
"power";  He  "feeds"  him.  But  only  the  disciple 
receives.  "I  deny,"  said  Calvin,  "that  it  can  be  eaten 
without  the  taste  of  faith,  or,  (if  it  is  more  agreeable  to 
speak  with  Augustine,)  I  deny  that  men  carry  away 


I IV.  xvii.  19. 
*  IV.  xvii.  7,  II. 
3  IV.  xvii.  32. 


424  John  Calvin 

more  from  the  sacrament  than  they  collect  in  the 
vessel  of  faith."'  Calvin's  relations  to  Luther  and 
ZwingH  have  been  well  defined  by  a  recent  writer  :  ^ — 

If  one  asks  whether  Calvin's  doctrine  approaches  nearer 
to  Luther  or  to  Zwingli,  the  decision  is  usually  rendered, 
through  credal  interests,  in  favour  of  the  latter.  But  if 
one  observes  that,  in  contrast  to  the  purely  subjective 
commemorative  interpretation  of  Zwingli,  Calvin  accepts 
a  special  presence  of  the  living  Christ,  together  with  the 
religious  inworking  thereby  caused,  in  the  manner  of 
Luther,  we  may,  nevertheless,  conclude, — while  recognising 
the  permanent  dissimilarity, — that  in  religious  compre- 
hension of  the  sacrament  Calvin  stands  nearer  to  Luther 
than  to  Zwingli. 

The  doctrinal  positions  just  enumerated  contain  the 
main  emphases  and  chief  peculiarities  of  Calvin's  the- 
ology, though  they  by  no  means  exhaust  the  round  of 
his  teaching.  On  such  themes  as  the  judgment,  the 
resurrection,  or  future  rewards  and  punishments,  he 
stood  on  the  common  basis  of  the  rehgious  thought  of 
his  age,  and  had  Httle,  if  anything,  novel  to  offer  for 
their  elucidation. 

In  Calvin's  exposition  the  theology  of  the  Reformation 
age  rose  to  a  clearness  and  dignity  of  statement  and  a 
logical  precision  of  definition  that  have  never  been  sur- 
passed. A  logician  of  critical  acumen,  a  lawyer  by 
training,  a  master  of  Latin  and  of  French  expression,  a 


I IV.  xvii.  ;^;^. 

2  Seeberg,  op.  cii.,  ii.  404. 


Theology  425 

humanist,  a  student  of  history  and  of  Christian  antiq- 
uity, Calvin  brought  to  the  service  of  Christian  theology 
gifts  which  must  always  make  the  Institutes  a  classic 
presentation  of  doctrine.  But  to  recognise  the  tran- 
scendent quahties  of  his  work  is  by  no  means  to  assert 
its  perpetuity.  His  system  has  been  no  exception  to  the 
general  rule  of  modification  and  supersession  which 
seems  essential  to  all  progress  even  in  the  apprehension 
of  the  deepest  of  Christian  verities.  Calvin's  system  has 
stood  the  test  of  time  better  than  most  expositions  of 
rehgious  truth;  but  it  has  suffered  a  general  attrition, 
and  though  the  degrees  in  which  its  various  aspects  are 
now  rejected  are  ver}^  unequal,  it  is  nowhere  held  in  its 
pristine  integrity;  while  the  larger  part  of  the  Protestant 
world,  even  in  the  churches  which  most  honour  his 
memory,  has  turned  far  aside  from  it. 

Most  universally  abandoned  is  Calvin's  conception  of 
the  duty  of  civil  rulers  to  guard  the  purity  of  the  Church. 
A  trial  hke  that  of  Servetus  has  happily  long  been 
impossible ;  and  the  first  name  on  the  Hst  of  subscribers 
to  Servetus's  monument  at  Geneva  is  that  of  the  Con- 
sistor}^  of  the  present  Genevan  Church  which  traces 
its  historic  continuity  from  his  foundation.  His  doc- 
trines of  election  and  reprobation  aroused  profound 
dissent  in  the  early  seventeenth  centur}-,  and  Arminian- 
ism  preserves  the  memory  and  the  results  of  the  protest 
then  initiated;  and  even  where  these  explanations  of 
God's  ways  with  men  are  nominally  maintained  they 
are  held  in  reahty  with  far  less  than  his  rigour  and  with 
httle  of  his  sense  of  satisfaction.  His  valuation  of  dis- 
cipline has  been  wholly  rejected.     No  modern  Christian 


426  John  Calvin 

community  would  tolerate  the  iron  inquisitorial  rule 
which  he  laid  on  Geneva;  and  disciphne,  even  in  its 
milder  forms,  instead  of  being  thought  of  as  a  prime 
duty  of  the  ministerial  office  is  now  regarded  as  one  of 
the  most  difficult  and  seldom-to-be-employed  means  of 
Christian  edification. 

Alore  widely  accepted  in  theory,  perhaps,  but  none 
the  less  generally  abandoned  by  modern  Christian 
thinking,  is  his  view  of  human  nature  as  utterly  de- 
praved. The  appeal  of  evangehsts  and  the  training  of 
the  Sunday  School  and  of  the  catechetical  class  alike 
now  addresses  itself  to  those  whom  they  regard  as  indeed 
enfeebled  by  sin  and  in  grievous  need  of  divine  aid,  but 
not  hopelessly  incapable  of  turning  to  or  of  accepting 
the  Ught.  Much  modem  thinking,  in  churches  which 
still  regard  Calvin  as  their  spiritual  ancestor,  denies  that 
men  are,  even  in  their  worst  state,  other  than  wander- 
ing children  of  God,  needing  to  be  made  conscious  of 
their  sonship,  but  in  no  sense  useful  in  their  destruc- 
tion only.  Nor  has  the  modem  Christian  world 
followed  CaMn  in  confining  all  revelation  to  the 
Scriptures.  The  protest  begun  by  the  Quakers  in  the 
seventeenth  century  has  become  common  property. 
The  thought  of  the  Reformation  age  that  a  God  who 
rules  the  world  by  the  constant  activity  of  His  pro\d- 
dence,  and  whose  Spirit  works  how  and  when  and  where 
He  will,  has  yet  confined  all  revelation  to  long  closed 
Scriptures  is  recognised  as  inconsistent.  The  Hght  is 
seen  to  have  been  and  to  be  much  more  widely  dif- 
fused than  Calvin  imagined,  and  to  have  shone  not 
merely  in  ages  but  among  peoples  who,  to  his  think- 


Theology  427 

ing,  had    been  consigned    by  God's  decree    to    utter 
darkness. 

Nor  is  Calvin's  estimate  of  the  Scriptures  themselves 
that  of  the  modern  Christian  world.  Their  writers  are 
almost  nowhere  now  viewed  as  "amanuenses"  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  The  human  element  in  them,  though  in 
very  varying  degrees  of  apportionment,  is  everywhere 
recognised  as  real.  A  degree  of  progress  in  revelation, 
of  which  he  never  dreamed,  is  universally  admitted. 
With  many  even  their  inspiration,  in  the  sense  in  which 
he  understood  it,  is  denied.  His  interpretation  of 
patriarch,  psalmist,  and  prophet  is  inconsistent  with 
that  evolutionary  philosophy  under  the  light  of  w^hich  the 
present  age  beHeves  that  it  has  come  to  truer  and  wor- 
thier views  of  man's  rehgious  development.  His  ideal 
Adam,  so  marvellous  in  endowments,  and  so  fateful  in 
relation  to  the  race,  has  been  very  generally  relegated 
to  the  legendary  explanations  of  the  origin  of  evil;  his 
restriction  of  salvation  to  those  under  the  light  of  the 
Gospel  Httle  accords  with  the  modem  sense  of  the  extent 
of  the  divine  compassion.  His  theory  of  the  Atonement 
gives  to  it  a  significance  as  a  penal  satisfaction  now 
widely  abandoned.  His  emphasis  on  the  sovereignty  of 
God  has  been  increasingly  displaced  by  a  clearer  con- 
ception of  the  divine  Fatherhood. 

To  the  present  Christian  world  Cahdn's  representa- 
tions of  the  divine  deahngs  with  men  seems  not  without 
considerable  elements  of  hardness  and  even  of  cruelty. 
That  they  so  appear,  is,  it  may  be  hoped,  to  be  ascribed 
to  clearer  apprehensions  of  the  Gospel  and  of  the  mes- 
sage, life,  and  significance  of  Christ. 


428  John  Calvin 

But  while  Calvin's  system  as  a  whole  can  no  longer 
command  the  allegiance  it  once  claimed,  its  value  in 
the  progress  of  Christian  thought  is  not  to  be  minimised 
or  forgotten.  It  laid  a  profound  emphasis  on  Christian 
intelhgence.  Its  appeal  was  primarily  to  the  intellect, 
and  it  has  trained  a  sturdy  race  of  thinkers  on  the 
problems  of  the  faith  wherever  it  has  gone.  It  has  been 
the  foe  of  popular  ignorance,  and  of  shallow,  emotional, 
or  sentimental  views  of  Christian  truth.  Equally  sig- 
nificant as  an  educative  force  has  been  its  insistence  on 
the  individual  nature  of  salvation.  A  personal  relation 
of  each  man  to  God,  a  definite  divine  plan  for  each  life, 
a  value  for  the  humblest  individual  in  the  God-appointed 
ordering  of  the  universe,  are  thoughts  which,  however 
justly  the  social  rather  than  the  individual  aspects  of 
Christianity  are  now  being  emphasised,  have  demon- 
strated their  worth  in  Christian  history.  Yet  perhaps 
the  crowning  historic  significance  of  Calvinism  is  to  be 
seen  in  its  valuation  of  character.  Its  conception  of  the 
duty  to  know  and  do  the  will  of  God,  not,  indeed,  as  a 
means  of  salvation,  but  as  that  for  which  we  are  elected 
to  Hfe,  and  as  the  only  fitting  tribute  to  the  ^'honour  of 
God  *'  which  we  are  bound  to  maintain,  has  made  of  the 
Calvinist  always  a  representative  of  a  strenuous  morahty. 
In  this  respect  Calvin's  system  has  been  Hke  a  tonic  in 
the  blood,  and  its  educative  effects  are  to  be  traced  in  the 
lands  in  which  it  has  held  sway  even  among  those 
who  have  departed  widely  from  his  habit  of  thought. 
The  spiritual  indebtedness  of  western  Europe  and  of 
North  America  to  the  educative  influence  of  Calvin's 
theology  is  well-night  measureless. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

CALVIN'S     LAST     DAYS. — HIS     PERSONAL     TRAITS     AND 
CHARACTER 

AS  has  already  been  pointed  out,  Calvin's  position 
in   Geneva  was  absolutely   assured   from  the 
time  of  the  defeat  of  the  Perrinists  in  1555.     Whatever 
dangers  thenceforth  threatened  him  and   his  system 
were  from  without  the  city,  not  from  within.     He  had 
triumphed  within  its  walls.     His  conception  of  a  city  i 
obedient  to  the  will  of  God  in  Church  and  State,  served  ^ 
by  an  educated  body  of  ministers,  discipHned  by  ec-  ( 
clesiastical  watch  and  strict  magisterial  supervision,  and  \ 
taught  by  excellent  schools  had  been  largely  reahsed.  ^ 
Not  but  that  there  was  much  for  the  Consistory  to 
reprove  and  for  the  Little  Council  to  punish  in  the  lives 
of  the  citizens.     The  iron  discipline  and  drastic  in- 
quisitionary  inspection  of  Genevan  morals  were  now 
given  their  fullest  development ;  but  the  ideal  of  a  per- 
fected society  for  which  Calvin  had  striven  was  now 
clear,  and,  to  many,  seemed  to  have  been  more  fully 
realised  than  at  any  previous  time  in  Christian  History. 
Geneva  stood  in  the  thought  of  a  large  section  of  Evan- 
gelical Christendom  as  a  model  Christian  common- 
wealth.^ 


I  Calvin's  last  days  are  well  described  by  Colladon  and  Beza,  who 
were  contemporary  witnesses,  Opera,  xxi.  95-118,  160-172.  A  care- 
ful, though  too  critical,  estimate  is  that  of  Kampschulte,  ii.  354-387; 

[4->v] 


430  John  Calvin  [1560- 

Calvin  was  now  almost  universally  honoured  by  the 
inhabitants  of  the  city  not  only  as  its  most  eminent 
resident,  but  as  a  well-nigh  infallible  interpreter  of  that 
Word  of  God  which  the  new  generation  of  citizens  had 
been  taught  by  him  to  regard  as  the  ultimate  law  of 
public  and  private  conduct  and  behef.  By  his  critics 
outside  of  Geneva  he  was  called  its  ''pope,"  "king"  or 
"calif."  A  simple-minded  refugee,  who  spoke  of  him 
as  "Brother  Calvin,"  was  quickly  reminded  that  in 
Geneva  "Master  Calvin"  was  the  only  fitting  form  of 
address.^  His  voice  oftenest  spoke  the  disciplinary 
sentences  of  the  Consistory.  It  was  he  who  expressed 
the  wishes  and  the  criticisms  of  the  ministers  to  the 
Little  Council.  He  was  largely  consulted  in  affairs  of 
State.  His  ad\nce  greatly  influenced  the  political  re- 
lations of  the  city. 

Yet  Calvin's  ripened  fame  and  power  brought  no 
change  in  title  or  in  oflicial  position.  He  was  still 
simply  one  of  the  city  pastors,  a  preacher  at  Saint-Pierre, 
and  a  teacher  of  theology.  His  clothing  was  very  plain, 
his  house  scantily  furnished  for  one  in  his  station.' 
Though  considerable  sums  of  money  passed  through  his 
hands,  especially  in  the  form  of  gifts  for  needy  refugees, 
his  administration  was  to  the  utmost  scrupulous,  he 
refused  presents  even  from  the  city  government,  and  his 


and  full,  though  over-laudatory,  accounts  are  those  of  E.  Stahelin, 
Johamies  Calvin,  ii.  365-471;  and  Adolf  Zahn,  Die  heiden  letzten 
Lebensjahre  von  J.  Calvin,  Leipzig,  1895. 

I  Kampschulte,  ii.  376,  387. 

^  Colladon,  Opera,  xxi.  113.  An  inventory  of  the  furniture  allowed 
him  by  the  city,  made  in  1548,  may  be  found.  Ibid.,  xiii.  135.  The 
whole  matter  is  carefully  discussed  by  Doumergue,  iii.  491-508. 


CALVIN    PREACHING  OF?  TEACHING. 


1564]  Last  Days  431 

salary  barely  sufficed  to  meet  the  very  modest  demanrls 
of  his  own  living  and  the  cost  of  a  freely  bestowed 
but  exceedingly  simple  hospitality.  His  whole  estate 
amounted  to  less  than  two  hundred  ecus^  the  equivalent 
in  value  perhaps  from  fifteen  hundred  to  two  thousand 
dollars,  including  the  worth  of  his  library.^  He  had 
enough,  however,  for  his  modest  wants  and  was  satis- 
fied with  his  thoroughly  unostentatious  menage. 

In  personal  appearance,  Calvin  "was  of  medium 
height,  of  a  rather  pale  and  dark  complexion,  with  eyes 
clear  even  to  his  death,  which  evidenced  the  sagacity  of 
his  mind."  Greatly  emaciated  in  later  life  by  illness, 
his  face  was  little  changed  to  the  last.^  The  sHght 
figure,  with  the  strongly  marked  features,  broad,  high 
forehead,  bright  eyes,  and  rather  scanty  beard,  must 
always  have  carried  an  impression  of  scholarly  re- 
finement; but  Calvin's  chief  graces  were  those  of 
the  intellect  and  spirit,— vivacity,  clarity,  impressive 
earnestness,  keen  penetration,  felicitous  and  striking 
characterisation.  Men  felt  an  intellectual  and  moral 
masterfulness  in  him,  perhaps  the  more  strongly  be- 
cause its  physical  embodiment  so  imperfectly  bespoke 
its  greatness.  Calvin's  capacity  for  work  was  pro- 
digious.    When  not  in  extreme  ill-health,^ — 

he  preached  everyday  of  each  alternate  week;  he  lectured 
threetimeseach  week  on  theology;  he  was  at  the  Consistory 


1  CoUadon,  Opera,  xxi.  113;  see  also,  the  notes  of  the  Strassburg 
editors,  Ibid.,  xx.  301;  and  Doumergue,  iii.  481-483.  Calvin's  will 
named  225  ecus  of  bequests. 

2  Colladon,  Ihid.y  xxi.  105;    Beza,  Ibid.,  p.  169. 

3  Colladon,  Ibid.,  p.  66. 


432 


John  Calvin  [1560- 


on  the  appointed  day,  and  spoke  all  the  remonstrances; 
what  he  added  at  the  Conference  on  the  Scriptures  every 
Friday  which  we  call  the  Congregation,  .  .  .  was  equal  to  a 
lecture;  he  was  not  neglectful  in  the  visitation  of  the  sick, 
in  special  remonstrances,  and  in  other  innumerable  concerns 
having  to  do  with  the  ordinary  exercise  of  his  ministry. 

Beza  reckoned  his  sermons  at  two  hundred  and 
eighty-six  annually  and  his  lectures  as  only  a  hundred 
less  in  number/  To  these  must  be  added  his  constant 
work  on  his  Institutes  and  other  theological  treatises, 
his  long  and  frequent  consultations  with  those  who 
sought  his  counsel,  and  above  all  his  correspondence, 
some  account  of  the  voluminous  extent  of  which  has 
already  been  given.  ^  Such  a  multipHcity  of  duties  left 
scanty  opportunity  for  special  preparation.  He  worked 
with  great  rapidity,  and,  even  in  expository  lectures, 
took  nothing  but  the  text  of  the  Scriptures  into  the  desk. 
Here  his  retentive  memory  stood  him  in  good  stead. 
All  that  he  had  ever  read  was  at  ready  command.  Nor 
was  he  less  observant  of  men.  Though  he  mingled 
little  in  famihar  intercourse  with  the  people  of  Geneva, 
and  must  have  been  to  most  of  them  rather  a  remote 
and  awe-inspiring  figure,  he  constantly  surprised  his 
associates  in  the  Consistory  by  his  recollection  of  past 
offenders  and  his  minute  accuracy  as  to  previous  cen- 
sures. A  large  proportion  of  his  letters  and  of  his 
scholarly  writing  was  dictated,  and  interruptions  seemed 
rarely  to  break  the  chain  of  his  thought  or  compelled 


Kampschulle,  ii.  376,  from  Beza,  Tract,  theol.,  ii.  353. 
Ante,  p.  378. 


1564]  Last  Days  433 

him  to  read  over  what  he  had  said  before  the  visit  or 
the  new  demand  upon  his  attention  compelled  the  sup- 
pension  of  his  task.' 

While  he  could  at  times  display  much  oratorical  skill, 
as  in  the  crisis  of  December,  1 547,  of  which  some  account 
has  already  been  given, ^  Calvin  in  general  spoke  with 
great  simplicity,  brevity,  and  directness.  He  avoided 
rhetorical  ornament.  Clarity  and  logical  strength 
added  an  intellectual  impressiveness  to  the  weight  of  his 
thought,  while  his  evident  earnestness  of  conviction  lent 
an  emotional  force  to  his  quiet  deUvery.  He  spoke 
slowly,  and  could  therefore  easily  be  followed  by  those 
who  \vould  take  notes.  Much  of  his  work  as  a  com- 
mentator owed  its  preservation  to  the  zeal  of  his 
auditors,  who  w^rote  from  his  oral  delivery  w^hat  he 
afterwards  prepared  for  the  press.^  His  sermons  and 
lectures  always  commanded  a  crowded  congregation. 

Calvin  kept  long  hours  in  his  study.  '*He  slept 
little";  by  five  or  six  in  the  morning  his  books  were 
brought  to  him  in  bed  and  his  amanuensis  was  ready. 
Much  of  the  morning,  even  on  days  on  which  he 
preached,  he  lay  on  his  couch,  believing  a  recumbent 
position  better  for  his  weak  digestion;  but  always  at 
work.  After  the  single  meal  which  constituted  his  daily 
repast  in  the  latter  part  of  his  Hfe,  he  would  walk  for  a 
quarter  of  an  hour,  or  at  most  for  twice  that  time,  in  his 
room  and  then  return  to  the  labours  of  the  study. 
Sometimes,  chiefly  when  urged  by  his  friend,  he  would 


^  Colladon,  Opera,  xxi.  pp.  io8,  109. 

2  Ante,  p.  309. 

^  Opera,  xxi.  70,  132;    xxix.  238;    Kampschulte,  ii.  376-378. 


434  John  Calvin  [1560^ 

play  a  simple  game,  quoits  in  his  garden,  or  ''clef"  on 
the  table  in  his  living-room.^  He  was  not  indisposed  to 
good-humoured  chafhng.  He  was  not  insensible  to  a 
pleasant  garden  or  a  cheerful  outlook  from  his  windows. 
But  his  few  recreations  were  briefly  enjoyed. 

Calvin's  acquaintance  was  vast,  but  his  intimate 
friends  were  few.  With  Farel,  Viret,  and  BulHnger  he 
remained  for  years  in  constant  correspondence.  Beza 
was  to  him  as  a  son  in  his  last  days.^  His  brother 
Antoine,  the  Colladons,  Trie,  des  Gallars,  Michel  Cop, 
Laurent  de  Normandie,  a  few  of  the  refugees  and 
magistrates,  enjoyed  his  full  confidence.  His  fascina- 
tion of  manner  for  his  friends  was  always  marked.  If 
he  had  none  of  the  genial  bonhomie  of  Luther,  he  was  no 
misanthrope.  His  comparative  isolation  of  spirit  was 
that  of  a  man  oppressed  with  multitudinous  burdens, 
compelled  to  husband  his  strength  to  the  utmost,  of 
aristocratic  tastes,  and  with  Httle  leisure  or  inchnation 
for  anything  which  did  not  bear  on  the  accomplishment 
of  his  task.  With  his  few  famiHar  friends,  however,  he 
stood  on  terms  of  cordial  intimacy. 

From  the  time  of  his  prolonged  illness  in  the  autumn 
and  winter  of  1558-59,  Calvin's  health,  never  vigorous  at 
best,  and  long  undermined  by  overwork,  anxiety  and 
want  of  exercise,  was  evidently  gravely  impaired.  That 
illness  left  its  mark  in  a  lameness  that  at  times  involved 


1  Colladon,  Opera,  xxi.  pp.  109,  113.  Doumergue,  iii.  527-563,  has 
made  the  utmost  possible  of  this  side  of  Calvin's  character.  In  the 
game  of  "clef"  the  keys  were  pushed  on  a  table,  the  aim  being  to 
bring  each  contestant's  nearest  to  the  further  edge  without  falling  ofif. 

2  "Optimiis  ille  mens  parens/*  Beza  styled  him.  Letter  to  Bul- 
linger,  March  6,  1564,  Opera,  xx.  261. 


1564]  Last  Days  435 

distress;  and  a  yet  more  serious  sequence  was  manifest 
in  pulmonary  hemorrhages.  The  severe  indigestion 
from  which  he  had  suffered  since  the  days  when  he  was 
an  unsparing  student  at  Paris  and  Orleans  now  increased 
so  as  to  compel  the  rigidly  abstemious  diet,  the  long 
hours  on  the  bed,  and  the  semi- invalid  life  of  which 
some  account  has  been  given.  His  old  enemy,  pro- 
tracted headaches,  doubtless  the  result  of  his  digestive 
weakness,  often  attacked  him.'  By  1563,  Calvin's 
feeble  frame  was  rapidly  breaking.  In  the  autumn  he 
was  for  two  months  confined  to  the  house.  His  in- 
digestion was  now  marked  by  severe  attacks  of  colic. 
He  suffered  from  renal  calculus  and  gout;  and  other 
distressing  symptoms  appeared.''  He  still  laboured  at 
his  books  and  correspondence,  he  still  preached  and 
lectured;  but  with  increasing  difficulty.  The  brave 
spirit  was  master  of  the  feeble  body  and  he  was  carried 
to  the  famihar  pulpit  in  a  chair,  when  no  longer  able  to 
walk.  But  a  shortness  of  breath  that  seemed  to  his 
contemporaries  an  indication  of  advancing  pulmonary 
tuberculosis  was  now  manifest.  On  February  2,  1564, 
he  lectured  for  the  last  time  in  the  Academy;  four  days 
later  he  preached  his  last  sermon.  For  a  little  longer  he 
attended  the  Friday  "Congregation"  where  he  was  not 
obhged  to  speak  at  length.  On  March  27th,  he  was 
carried  to  the  City  Hall  and  appeared  before  the  Little 


^  Eg.  letter  of  October  14,  1560,  to  Bullinger,  Opera,  xviii.  217; 
Colladon,  Opera,,  xxi.  89,  94. 

2  Calvin  himself  gave  a  minute  account  of  his  symptoms  in  a  letter 
of  February,  1564,  to  the  physicians  of  Montpellier,  Ihid.,  xx.  252; 
see,  also,  Colladon,  Ihid.,  xxi.  94.  Doumergue  discusses  them  fully, 
iii.  509-526. 


436  John  Calvin  [1560- 

Council  to  present  his  friend,  Nicolas  Colladon,  as 
rector  of  the  School.  At  the  April  communion,  which 
fell  on  the  second,  he  was  present,  borne  in  a  chair,  and 
not  only  partook  of  the  consecrated  elements,  but  joined 
in  singing  the  psalm  as  much  as  his  feeble  voice  would 
permit.^ 

Calvin  felt  that  his  end  was  near.  He  was  ready  and 
even  eager  to  go.  "Lord,  how  long!"  was  the  excla- 
mation constantly  on  his  lips.  He  seemed  continually 
in  prayer.^  On  April  25th,  he  made  his  will,  leaving 
most  of  his  Httle  property  to  his  brother,  Antoine,  and 
Antoine's  children,  but  remembering  the  School  and 
the  rehef  of  poor  strangers.^  Two  days  later,  the 
Little  Council  appeared  before  him  in  his  sick-room, 
and  heard  from  the  famihar  voice  a  characteristic  ex- 
hortation, expressive  of  gratitude  for  what  they  had  done 
for  him,  of  friendship,  and  of  desire  for  forgiveness  for 
any  faults  and  excess  of  vehemence  on  his  part;  but 
pointing  out  clearly  their  short- comings,  since  "each 
has  his  imperfections,"  and  urging  humble  dependence 
upon  God.*  The  day  following  he  received  the  Genevan 
ministers,  and  spoke  to  them  a  farewell  remarkable  for 
its  biographic  allusions :  ^ — 

When  I  first  came  to  this  Church  it  had  well-nigh  nothing. 
There  was  preaching  and  that  is  all.     The  idols  were  sought 


1  Colladon,  Opera,  xxi.  pp.  96-98;   Beza,  Ihid.,  p.  161. 

2  Ibid.,  pp.  96,  104. 

3  In  French,  Opera,  xx.  298;   in  Latin,  Ibid.,  xxi.  162;   in  English 
trans.,  Schaff,  vii.  828. 

A  Opera,  ix.  887;   xxi.  164;    Schaff,  vii.  831. 
s  Opera,  ix.  891;    xxi.  166;    Schaff,  vii.  833. 


1564]  Last  Days  437 

out  and  burned;  but  there  was  no  reformation.  All  was  in 
confusion.  That  good  man  Master  Guillaume  [Fare!] 
and  the  blind  Coraud  were  indeed  here.  ...  I  have  lived  in 
marvellous  combats  here.  I  have  been  saluted  in  mockery 
of  an  evening  by  lifty  or  sixty  gun-shots  before  my  door. 
Fancy  how  that  could  shock  a  poor  student,  timid  as  I  am 
and  as  I  confess  I  have  always  been.  After  that  I  was  hunted 
from  this  city  and  betook  myself  to  Strassburg.  Having 
dwelt  there  some  time,  I  was  recalled,  but  I  had  no  less  diffi- 
culty than  before  in  seeking  to  fulfil  my  office.  They  set 
dogs  on  me,  crying,  "Scoundrel,"  and  my  cloak  and  legs 
were  seized.  I  went  to  the  Council  of  Two  Hundred  when 
they  were  fighting,^  .  .  .  and  when  I  entered  they  said  to 
me,  **Sir,  withdraw,  it  is  not  with  you  we  have  to  do."  I 
said  to  them,  "No,  I  shall  not!  Go  on,  rascals,  kill  me 
and  my  blood  will  witness  against  you,  and  even  these 
benches  will  require  it."  .  .  .  I  have  had  many  faults  which 
you  have  had  to  endure,  and  all  that  I  have  done  is  of  no 
value.  The  wicked  will  seize  upon  that  word,  but  I  repeat 
that  all  that  I  have  done  is  of  no  value,  and  that  I  am  a 
miserable  creature.  But,  if  I  may  say  so,  I  have  meant 
well,  my  faults  have  always  displeased  me,  and  the  root  of 
the  fear  of  God  has  been  in  my  heart.  You  can  say  that 
the  wish  has  been  good;  and  I  beg  you  that  the  ill  be 
pardoned,  but  if  there  has  been  good  in  it  that  you  will 
conform  to  it  and  follow  it. 

As  concerns  my  doctrine:  I  have  taught  faithfully,  and 
God  has  given  me  grace  to  write.  I  have  done  it  with  the 
utmost  fidelity,  and  have  not  to  my  knowledge  corrupted 
or  twisted  a  single  passage  of  the  Scriptures;  and  when  I 
could  have  drawn  out  a  far-fetched  meaning,  if  I  had  studied 
subtilty,  I  have  put  that  [temptation]  under  foot  and  have 


He  refers  to  the  tumult  of  December,  1547,  ante,  p.  309. 


438  John  Calvin  [1560- 

always  studied  simplicity.  I  have  written  nothing  through 
hatred  against  any  one,  but  have  always  set  before  me  faith- 
fully what  I  have  thought  to  be  for  the  glory  of  God. 

These  are  the  words  of  one  already  much  broken  by 
illness,  dwelling  in  memory  on  the  perils  of  the  past, 
which  had  burned  their  bitterness  into  his  soul;  but 
they  speak  forth  Calvin's  characteristic  humiUty  before 
God,  his  conscious  rectitude  toward  men,  and  his 
ruling  motive  to  exalt  the  divine  will.  The  sensitive, 
easily  wounded  spirit,  and  the  unbending  determination 
of  purpose,  so  curiously  combined  in  him,  equally  ap- 
pear in  them. 

From  this  farewell  address  to  his  ministerial  asso- 
ciates to  his  death  nearly  a  month  elapsed.  On  May 
2d,  Calvin  wrote  to  his  well-tried  friend  Farel  the  last 
letter  he  was  ever  to  send  to  any  correspondent:' — 

Farewell,  best  and  truest  brother.  If  God  wills  that  you 
remain  the  survivor,  live  mindful  of  our  union,  which  has 
been  useful  to  the  Church  of  God,  so  that  its  fruit  abides  for 
us  in  heaven.  I  am  unwilling  that  you  weary  yourself  for  my 
sake,  for  I  draw  breath  with  difficulty,  and  constantly  await 
its  failing  me.  It  is  enough  that  I  live  and  die  unto  Christ, 
who  is  gain  to  those  who  are  His  in  life  and  in  death.  Again, 
farewell,  [to  you]  together  with  the  brethren. 

In  spite  of  the  infirmities  of  age,"*  of  which  Calvin 
showed  such  tender  consideration  in  this  letter,  Farel 


1  Opera,  xx.  302. 

2  Farel  was  seventy -five;    but  seemed  older  to  his  friends,  e.g. 
CoUadon,  Opera,  xxi.  103. 


1564]  Last  Days  439 

could  not  let  his  younger  associate  pass  from  earthly 
companionship  without  looking  upon  Calvin's  face  once 
more.  He  hastened  from  Neuchatel,  visited  and  supped 
with  Calvin,  and  preached,  under  the  burden  of  his 
grief,  to  the  people  of  Geneva.  But  the  sands  of  Cal- 
vin's hfe  had  not  yet  quite  run  out.  On  May  19th,  the 
day  when  the  Genevan  ministers  fulfilled  the  curious 
quarterly  duty  of  mutual  criticism  which  Calvin  had 
made  part  of  the  ecclesiastical  constitution,  he  had 
them  assemble  at  his  house,  was  carried  to  them  in 
a  chair,  spoke  briefly  with  them,  and  feebly  tried  to 
join  in  the  common  meal  with  which  it  w^as  the  ami- 
cable custom  to  close  the  trying  session.  It  was  a 
final  effort  to  discharge  his  ministerial  duty  and  to 
express  his  fraternal  regard.  He  never  rose  from  his 
bed  again. 

On  Saturday,  May  27,  1564,  about  eight  in  the  even- 
ing, the  end  came.  Conscious  and  intelhgent  to  the 
last,  he  fell  peacefully  asleep.  The  next  day,  as  the 
Ordonnances  provided,^  they  buried  his  body  about  tw-o 
in  the  afternoon,  wTapped  in  a  shroud  and  encased  in  a 
plain  w^ooden  coffin,  without  pomp  or  elaborate  cere- 
mony "in  the  common  cemetery  called  Plain-palais," 
his  grave  being  marked  by  a  simple  mound  Hke  that 
of  his  humbler  associates  in  death.  It  was  his  wash 
that  his  burial  should  be  thus  modest,  and  that  no 
gravestone  should  mark  his  resting-place;  but  he  could 
not  prevent,  nor  would  he  have  desired  to  prevent,  the 
spontaneous  outpourings  of  the  inhabitants  of  Geneva, 
pastors,  professors,  magistrates,  and  citizens,  to  do  him 


I  Opera,  xa.  27. 


440 


John  Calvin  [1560- 


honour  at  his  burial.'  And  there  in  some  now  undeter- 
minable spot  in  the  ancient  Genevan  acre  of  God  rests 
all  that  was  mortal  of  the  reformer. 

Calvin  was  not  fifty-five  years  of  age.  The  thought 
is  natural  that  his  career  was  prematurely  cut  short, 
and  that  had  he  Uved  he  might  have  done  much  more. 
Yet,  to  a  degree  unusual  even  in  the  experience  of  long- 
lived  men,  his  was  already  a  completed  work,  and  it  may 
well  be  doubted  whether  a  score  of  years  of  added  life 
would  have  increased  materially  its  power  and  signifi- 
cance. His  theological  system  had  long  been  complete. 
His  conceptions  of  the  Church  and  of  its  relations  to 
the  State  had  not  merely  long  been  famiharto  the  pubHc, 
but  had  been  as  fully  reahsed  in  Genevan  practice  as  it 
was  possible  to  anticipate  that  they  would  ever  be.  His 
system  of  discipUne  was  in  high  efficiency.  The  Ge- 
nevan schools  had  been  crowned  by  the  Academy.  His 
ideal  of  the  Reformation  had  become  that  of  a  large 
part  of  western  Europe,  and  had  extended  to  Germany, 
Poland,  and  Hungary;  but  its  guidance  had  passed 
beyond  the  control  of  any  one  man,  however  gifted. 
Even  in  Geneva,  it  was  probably  desirable  that  the 
further  direction  of  the  ecclesiastical  life  of  the  city 
should  come  under  more  conciUatory  leadership.  The 
battle  had  been  fought,  as  he  alone  could  fight  it. 
Another,  devoted  to  his  ideals  but  less  warUke,  such  as 
Beza,  could  now  better  maintain  what  had  been  won. 
Calvin's  work  was  essentially  finished. 

Calvin's  character  is  one  of  lights  and  shadows.     He 


^  Colladon,  Opera,  xxi.  io6;  Beza,  Ihid.,  p.  169.     A  comparatively 
modem  stone  bearing  the  letters  J.  C.  has  been  placed  as  a  memorial. 


2    c 


z  — 

<  § 


O 

2 


1564]  Last  Days  441 

was  the  son  of  his  age  and  of  the  land  of  his  birth.  He 
was  a  lawyer  by  training.  With  the  clarity  of  mind 
native  to  the  Frenchman,  he  combined  the  skill  of  the 
advocate  and  the  reverence  for  system  of  the  jurist.  He 
made  all  his  experiences  and  learning  tributary  to  his 
development.  As  a  recent  biographer  has  well  said  of 
him:' — 

Few  men  may  have  changed  less;  but  few  also  have  devel- 
oped more.  Every  crisis  in  his  career  taught  him  something, 
and  so  enhanced  his  capacity.  His  studies  of  Stoicism 
showed  him  the  value  of  morals ;  and  he  learned  how  to  em-  •^ 
phasise  the  sterner  ethical  qualities  as  well  as  the  humaner, 
and  the  more  clement  by  the  side  of  the  higher,  public 
virtues.  His  early  Humanism  made  him  a  scholar  and 
an  exegete,  a  master  of  elegant  Latinity,  of  lucid  and 
incisive  speech,  of  a  graphic  pen,  and  historical  imagi- 
nation. His  juristic  studies  gave  him  an  idea  of  law, 
through  which  he  interpreted  the  more  abstract  notions 
of  theology,  and  a  love  of  order,  which  compelled  him 
to  organise  his  Church.  His  imagination,  playing  upon 
the  primitive  Christian  literature,  helped  him  to  see 
the  religion  Jesus  instituted  as  Jesus  Himself  saw  it; 
while  the  forces  visible  around  him — the  superstitions, 
the  regnant  and  unreproved  vices,  the  people  so  quickly 
sinning  and  so  easily  forgiven,  the  relics  so  innumer- 
able and  so  fictitious,  the  acts  and  articles  of  worship, 
and  especially  the  Sacraments  deified  and  turned  into 
substitutes  for  Deity — induced  him  to  judge  the  system 
that  claimed  to  be  the  sole  interpreter  and  representative 
of  Christ  as  a  crafty  compound  of  falsehood  and  truth. 


I  A.  M.  Fairbairn,  in  The  Cambridge  Modern  History,  ii.  363. 


442 


John  Calvin  [1560- 


That  he  was  a  creative  theologian  of  the  highest  rank 
may  well  be  questioned.  He  owed  much  to  Augustine, 
and  to  the  type  of  thought  which  Scotus  had  impressed 
on  the  later  middle  ages.  His  debt  to  Bucer  was  large. 
Without  Luther  his  work  could  not  have  been  done. 
But  as  a  systematiser  of  Christian  truth  he  stood  without 
a  rival  in  his  century.  He  best  taught  men  the  answer 
to  make  to  Roman  claims;  and,  under  his  logic,  the- 
ology attained  once  more  a  classic  presentation.  Yet  he 
was  much  more  than  a  theologian.  As  an  organiser  he 
was  at  his  best,  at  least  in  intention.  To  quote  Fair- 
bairn's  happy  phrase,  he  sought  to  answer  the  question : 
"How  could  the  Church  be  made  not  simply  an  in- 
stitution for  the  worship  of  God,  but  an  agency  for 
the  making  of  men  fit  to  worship  Him?"^  His  an- 
swer had  its  evident  faults.  His  methods  were  largely 
those  of  inquisitorial  discipline,  of  State  support,  of 
force;  but  his  answer  was  the  best  given  in  his  age. 

Calvin's  own  judgment  of  himself  was  that  he  was 
shy  and  timid  by  nature.  To  this  opinion  he  often 
gave  expression;^  and  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  its 
truth  as  an  analysis  of  his  inward  feehng.  But  his 
moral,  and  even  his  physical,  courage  is  beyond  doubt. 
Once  convinced  of  the  rightfulness  of  a  course  of  action, 
no  perils  led  him  to  swerve  from  its  pursuit.  The  spirit 
was  master  of  the  flesh  and  of  the  mind.  His  chief  faults 
were  a  supersensitive  seK-consciousness  which  led  him 
to  feel  sHghts  and  criticisms  far  too  keenly,  and  a  quick- 
ness of  temper  which  often  overcame  him  to  the  loss  of 


I  The  Cambridge  Modern  History,  ii.  p.  364. 
'E.g.  Opera,  xxi.  102;    xxxi.  21-24. 


is64]  Last  Days  443 

self-control.  Of  this  infirmity  a  characteristic  example 
has  already  been  cited.'  He  was  himself  fully  conscious 
of  the  weakness,  and  it  was  no  less  clearly  recognised  by 
his  friends."  His  nerves,  racked  by  constant  struggle 
and  by  long  illness,  were  easily  rasped.  In  his  Hghtly 
aroused  exasperation,  he  often  expressed  himself,  even 
to  his  intimates,  with  acerbity.  To  his  enemies,  for 
example  to  CastelHo  and  Servetus,  he  was  hard  and 
vindictive.  Much  of  this  asperity  was  the  result  of 
semi-invalid  ism;  but  much,  also,  was  the  fruit  of  the 
conviction  — a  source,  indeed,  in  no  small  degree  of  his 
strength — that  his  work  was  fully  that  of  God.  So 
intense  was  this  identification  of  his  own  interests  with 
those  of  the  Master  he  would  serve,  that  he  thanked  his 
physician  for  aid  in  recovery  from  illness  less  on  his 
personal  account  than  as  a  service  rendered  to  the 
Church;  and  he  regarded  attacks  upon  himself  as  a 
danger  to  the  cause  of  the  Gospel.^  It  was  easy  for 
such  a  temperament  to  see  in  a  criticism  a  serious  offence 
and  in  an  opponent  an  enemy  of  God. 

Calvin  undoubtedly  appeared  in  different  aspects  to 
his  contemporaries,  and  this  diversity  has  led  ever  since 
his  time  to  widely  various  estimates  of  his  character. 
To  his  opponents  he  was  the  stern,  unrelenting  enemy, — 
the  " king,"  "pope"  or  " calif."  To  the  majority  of  his 
supporters  he  was  the  admired  leader,  the  matchless 
logician,  the  wise  commander  in  a  great  cause,  the 
inspirer  of  courage  and  of  martyr-zeal;    but  a  figure 


^  Ante,  p.  232. 

"^  E.g.  CoUadon,  Opera,  xxi.  117;  Beza,  Ibid.,  p.  170. 

3  Opera,  xii.  68;  xiii.  598;  compare  Kampschulte,  ii.  383. 


444 


John  Calvin  [1560-1564] 


somewhat  distant  and  awesome.  To  his  intimates,  he 
was  the  affectionate,  if  quick-tempered  and  sometimes 
censorious  friend — a  man  to  be  loved  as  well  as 
reverenced. 

But  whether  friend,  disciple,  or  foe,  none  could  fail 
to  recognise  Calvin's  transcendent  abihty.  He  might 
be  slandered,  the  worst  of  motives  might  be  imputed 
to  him  by  traducers,  but  none  who  knew  him  could 
do\ibt  his  devotion  to  his  cause.  With  all  his  frequent 
arrogance  towards  men,  Calvin's  spirit  was  humble 
towards  God.  To  do  and  to  teach  His  will  was  un- 
doubtedly his  prime  intention;  and  if  Cahdn  too  often 
identified  the  divine  purpose  with  his  own  wishes  the 
error  does  not  detract  from  the  sincerity  of  his  con- 
secration. He  submitted  to  his  long  bodily  enfeeble- 
ment  as  from  the  wise  hand  of  God.  In  the  crises  of  his 
life,  his  conversion,  his  first  settlement  in  Geneva,  and 
in  his  return  to  the  difficult  ministry  in  that  turbulent 
city,  he  sacrificed  ease,  scholarly  honours,  and  personal 
incHnation  to  what  he  deemed  the  imperative  voice  of 
God.  He  put  God  first.  In  the  strength  of  the  con- 
viction that  God  had  chosen  his  task,  he  fought  his 
battles  and  did  his  work.  It  is  this  crowning  trait  that 
was  expressed  in  the  declaration  of  the  Genevan  Little 
Council,  standing  under  the  shadow  of  his  recent  death : 
"God  gave  him  a  character  of  great  majesty,"' — and 
that  must  ever  remain  Calvin's  highest  claim  to  personal 
regard. 


R.  Stahelin,  in  Hauck's  Realeticyklopddie,  iii.  683. 


INDEX 


Academy,  the,  of  Geneva,  360- 

367- 
Ailli,  Pierre  d',  5,  8. 
Aiscelin,  Gilles,  36. 
Alciati,  Andrea,  51,  52,  59. 
Aleandro,  Girolamo,  6. 
Aliodi,  Claude,  199,  200. 
Amadeus  V.,  of  Savoy,  160. 
Amadeus  VIII.,  of  Savoy,  164. 
Amboise,  the  Tumult  of,  386. 
Ameaux,  Benoite,  295. 
Ameaux,   Pierre,   case  of,   295- 

297.  302,  325.  329- 
Anabaptists, in  Geneva,  201, 202, 

Calvin  wins,  221;  mentioned, 

124. 
Andelot,  Francois  d',  386. 
Angouleme,  Calvin  in,  109-111. 
Angouleme,   Marguerite  d',  see 

Marguerite. 
Anthony  of  Navarre,  379,  386. 
Aquinas;  Thomas,  5, 8. 
Arande,  Michel  d',  12. 
Arneys,  Antoine,  330,  331. 
Arno'uUet,  Balthasar,  330. 
Artichauds,  the,  Party  in  Geneva, 

255-257^  281,  292,  353. 
Articles,  the  Genevan,  of   1537, 

184-192. 
Aubert,  Henri,  351. 
Audin,  Vincent,  xiii. 
Augustine,  416,  417,  423. 


Babinot,  Albert,  121. 
Baboeuf,  Francois  Noel,  21. 
Baduel,  Claude,  365. 
Balard,  Jean,  178,  189,  265. 
Baudoin,  Francois,  42. 
Baum,  Johann  Wilhelm,  xi. 


Baum,  Pierre  de   la.  Bishop  of 
Geneva,    164-166,    171,    172, 

175- 

Bcaugency,  the  Count  of,  63. 

Beda,  Noel,  Parisian  theologian, 
II,  36,  37.  49,  67. 

B^rauld,  Francois,  362,  363. 

Bern,  Canton  of,  aUiance  with 
Geneva,  165;  favors  Protes- 
tantism, 167;  its  halting  policy, 
175;  aids  Genevan  indepen- 
dence, 176;  supports  Protes- 
tantism in  Lausanne,  183,  196; 
aids  CaroU,  196;  declares 
Calvin  orthodox  on  the  Trin- 
ity, 200;  hampers  Calvin's 
Genevan  work,  205-208;  the 
Bernese  "ceremonies"  in  Ge- 
neva, 208-213;  tries  to  aid 
Calvin,  213-215,  248,  251; 
in  quarrel  with  Geneva,  253- 
255;  opposes  Servetus,  340; 
supports  Calvin's  opponents, 
309,  346,  347;  aids  the  Perrin- 
ists,  353,  356,  357;  opposes 
Genevan  discipline  at  Lau- 
sanne, 362;  loses  territory,  373. 
Bernard,  Jacques,  245,  257,  258, 

284,  285. 
Berquin,   Louis  de,   the  Protes- 
tant martyr,  9,  15,  16,  104. 
Berthelier,  Francois  Daniel,  311, 

354- 

Berthelier,  Philibert,  the  elder, 
Genevan  patriot,  165,  311. 

Berthelier,  Philibert,  the  younger, 
Genevan  party  leader,  Bol- 
sec's  story  of,  117;  character 
and  aims,  311-314;  in  the 
case  of  Ser\^etus,  333,  334,  336; 
contest  regarding  excommu- 
nication, 335-340,  344,  345; 
fears    French    refugees,    348- 


445 


446 


Index 


Berthelier — Contin  ued. 

350;    fall    and    condemnation, 
350-356. 

Beveridge,  Henry,  xii. 

Beza,  Theodore,  Life  of  Calvin, 
xii;  on  Calvin's  censorious- 
ness,  42;  on  Calvin's  studies 
and  ill-health,  48;  on  Calvin's 
conversion,  46,  79,  92;  on 
Calvin's  activity  in  Angou- 
leme,  iii;  on  Calvin's  at- 
titude toward  the  plague- 
stricken,  287;  arrival  in  Ge- 
neva, 314;  teaches  in  Lau- 
sanne, 362;  settles  in  Geneva, 
363;  at  the  Colloquy  of  Poissy, 
387;  personal  relations  to 
Calvin,  379,  434;  on  Calvin's 
industry,  432;  succeeds  Cal- 
vin, 440. 

Blanchet,  Pierre,  285,  286. 

Blaurer,  Ambrose,  379. 

Bodley,  Thomas,  366. 

Boisseau,  Jean,  121,  122. 

Bolsec,  Jerome  Hermes,  charges 
against  Calvin,  11 6-1 19;  quar- 
rel with  Calvin,  315-320;  ban- 
ished,   319;    mentioned,    335, 

340,  345- 

Bonaventura,  5. 

Bonna,  Pierre,  351. 

Bonnet,  Jules,  xii. 

Bouchefort,  Jean  de,  151. 

Bourges,  University  of,  51. 

Boussiron,  Frangoise,  153,  154. 

Bray,  Guy  de,  388. 

Brazil,  colony  in,  401. 

Brigonnet,  Guillaume,  Bishop  of 
Meaux,  reformatory  work,  9- 
14;  mentioned,  93,  168,  195. 

Bucer,  Martin,  Calvin's  letter  to, 
65,  66;  Calvin's  theological 
indebtedness  to,  147-149;  sus- 
pects Calvin  temporarily,  201; 
criticises  Calvin,  215;  invites 
him  to  Strassburg,  217;  liturgy, 
222;  theological  instruction, 
227;  in  Calvin's  dispute  with 
Caroli,  231,  232;  on  Calvin's 
marriage,  235;  at  the  Collo- 
quies, 239,  240;  Calvin's  sym- 


pathy with,  260,  262;  men- 
tioned, 103,  184,  379,  442. 

Bude,  Franfois,  348,  349. 

Bude,  Guillaume,  7,  9,  54. 

Bude,  Jean,  348,  349. 

Bullinger,  Heinrich,  of  Zurich, 
acquaintance  with  Calvin  be- 
gins, 127;  on  church-disci- 
pline, 192,  344;  letter  from 
Haller,  372;  the  Zurich  Con- 
sensus, 395-397;  Calvin's  in- 
timacy with,  354,  379,  434. 

Bungener,  Felix,  xiii. 

Bure,  Idelette  de,  Calvin's  wife, 
236,  237. 


Caesar,  Julius,  159. 

Calvin,  the,  family,  22. 

Calvin,  Antoine,  brother  of  John, 
early  life,  25-27;  beneficed, 
30;  at  Paris,  55;  sale  of  lands, 
157;  accompanies  John  to 
Geneva,  158;  at  Strassburg, 
233,  235;  a  burgher  of  Geneva, 
300;  divorce,  357;  gift  through, 
373;  remembered  in  brother's 
will,  436;  mentioned,  434. 

Calvin,  Charles,  brother  of  John, 
early  life,  25,  26,  29;  beneficed, 
30;  pecuniary  negligence,  55; 
quarrel  with  the  Noyon  Chap- 
ter, 56;  accused  of  heresy,  57, 
114;  possible  influence  on  his 
brother,  81-83;  sale  of  lands, 
157;  dies  excommunicate,  57; 

Calvin,  Gerard,  see  Cauvin. 

Calvin,  Jacques,  Calvin's  son,  237. 

Calvin,  Marie,  see  Cauvin. 

Calvin,  John,  descent,  22-26; 
birth,  26;  at  school  in  Noyon, 
27;  friendship  with  the  Hang- 
est  family,  27;  beneficed,  29, 
43;  early  student  Hfe  in  Paris, 
30-43;  friendships,  39-41  >  49, 
51,  109-111,  121,  127;  al- 
leged censoriousness,  42;  turns 
to  study  of  Law,  44,  47;  at 
Orleans,  47;  at  Bourges,  51; 
begins  Greek,  52;  death  of  his 


Index 


447 


Calvin — Continued. 

father,  52;  a  humanist  in  Paris, 
53>  555  ^he  Commentary  on 
Seneca,  57-62,  69,  79,  88,  95; 
second  stay  in  Orleans,  62- 
65;  at  Noyon  in  1533,  66;  third 
stay  in  Paris,  66;  conversion, 
66-105;  relation  to  Cop's  Ad- 
dress, 68,  82,  83-89,  95-101, 
105;  floes  from  Paris,  107,  108; 
at  Angouleme,  108-111,  120; 
begins  the  Institutes,  11 1; 
visits  Le  Fevre,  112;  resigns 
his  benefices,  113,  114;  im- 
prisoned at  Noyon,  115;  le- 
gend of  his  branding,  116-119; 
at  Poitiers,  120-123;  adminis- 
tration of  the  Supper,  122;  at 
Orleans,  the  Psychopannychia, 
123-125;  flight  from  France, 
126;  life  at  Basel,  127,  128; 
Prefaces  to  Olivetan's  transla- 
tion of  the  Bible,  128;  first 
edition  of  the  Institutes,  128- 
149;  letter  to  King  Francis, 
128,  130,  132-136;  doctrine 
of  the  Institutes,  136-146; 
indebtedness  to  older  theo- 
logians, 146-149;  journey  to 
Italy,  150-157;  attitude  toward 
Roman  worship,  154-156,  380, 
381;  was  he  in  Aosta?  156; 
last  visit  to  Paris,  157;  ar- 
rival in  Geneva,  158;  begins 
work  there,  182-184;  at  Lau- 
sanne, 183;  the  Genevan  Arti- 
cles of  1537,  184-192;  the  Cat- 
echism  of  1537,  184,  193;  the 
Genevan  Confession,  184,  194, 
204,  205;  attacked  by  Caroli, 
195-201;  accused  of  Arian- 
ism,  197-201;  disputes  with 
Anabaptists,  201,  202;  difii- 
culties  at  Geneva,  205-211; 
banished  from  Geneva,  211- 
215;  life  in  Strassburg,  216- 
244;  poverty,  219,  220;  pastor 
of  French  Church,  220;  wins 
Anabaptists,  221;  his  liturgy, 
221-225;  hymns,  225,  226; 
a   teacher    of    theology,    227, 


228;  the  Institutes  revised, 
1539,  229;  Treatise  on  the  Sup- 
per, 230;  again  in  controversy 
with  Caroli,  230-233;  his  mar- 
riage, 233-237;  his  child,  237; 
at  the  Colloquies,  238-243; 
acc|uaintancc  with  Melanch- 
thon,  238-242;  opinion  of  Eck, 
240;  thanked  by  Marguerite 
d' Angouleme,  242;  relations 
with  Luther,  243,  244;  gen- 
erous attitude  toward  Cieneva, 
246-250;  his  Reply  to  Sadoleto, 
73-7S,  78.  243,  250-252;  in- 
vited to  return  to  Geneva,  258- 
262;  provided  with  house  and 
salary,  263,  264;  the  Ordon- 
nances,  265-274;  the  Cate- 
chism of  1542,  275;  was  he  a 
civil  legislator?  275-277;  his 
position  in  Geneva,  278;  rigor, 
281-283;  pastoral  changes  ef- 
fected, 285-287;  the  plague  in 
Geneva,  286-288;  dispute  with 
Castellio,  288-291;  struggle 
with  rising  factions,  292-324; 
writes  against  the  "  Spirituels," 
294;  the  case  of  Ameaux,  295- 
297;  tavern  regulation,  297; 
plays,  298;  baptismal  names, 
299;  in  quarrel  with  Perrin 
and  the  Favres,  301-314;  the 
case  of  Gruet,  306,  307;  Mai- 
gret,  308-310;  his  personal 
courage,  309;  dispute  with 
Bolsec  regarding  predestina- 
tion, 315-320;  dispute  with 
TrolUet,  320,  321;  in  peril  of 
the  loss  of  his  cause,  322-324; 
commentaries  and  treatises 
from  1540  to  1553,  323,  324; 
the  contest  with  Servctus,  325- 
344;  his  Refutation  of  the  Er- 
rors of  Servetus,  343;  attacked 
by  Castellio,  343;  struggle  over 
Berthelier's  excommunication, 
33S-340,  344,  345;  his  ortho- 
doxy questioned,  345-347; 
overthrow  of  the  Perrinists, 
350-356;  difficulties  with  Bern, 
356;  domestic  trials,  357;  care 


448 


Index 


Calvin — Continued. 

for  Genevan  industries,  359; 
favors  interest-taking,  359; 
foundation  of  the  Academy, 
360-367;  illness  of  1558-59, 
367,  368;  edition  of  the  Insti- 
tutes of  1559,  368;  his  later 
commentaries,  369,  370;  favors 
from  the  Genevan  govern- 
ment, 373-375;  his  acquaint- 
ance and  correspondence,  378- 
380;  relations  to  France,  380- 
387;  to  the  Netherlands,  387, 
3S8;  to  England,  and  Scotland, 
388-393;  to  the  Swiss  churches, 
395-397;  the  Zurich  Consen- 
sus, iMd.;  controversies  with 
Westphal  and  Hesshusen,  75, 
398;  relations  to  Germany, 
398-401;  missions  and  Protes- 
tant union,  401,  402;  services 
to  civil  liberty,  403-408;  his 
theology,  409-428;  his  doc- 
trine of  God,  409,  410;  the 
Scriptures,  410-412;  of  man, 
412,  413;  salvation,  413-415; 
predestination,  415-418;  the 
Church,  418-421;  the  Sacra- 
ments, 421-424;  value  of  his 
theology,  428;  his  last  days, 
429-444;  dress,  property,  and 
appearance,  430,  431;  indus- 
try, 431-433;  oratory,  433; 
amusements,  434;  acquaint- 
ances, 434;  long  ill-health,  48, 
182,  228,  229,  312,  367,  368, 
434-436;  last  activities,  435- 
437;  will,  26,  436;  last  letter, 
435;  death,  439;  burial,  439, 
440;  work  not  unfinished,  440; 
character,  440-444. 

Calvin,  John,  not  the  reformer, 
118. 

Capito,  Wolfgang,  217,  218, 
227,  260,  326. 

Caraccioli,  Galeazzo,  348. 

Caroli,  Pierre,  disputes  in  Ge- 
neva, 173;  controversies  with 
Calvin,  195-201,  209,  230- 
233,  329. 

Castellio,  Sebastien,  courage  of, 


286;  quarrel  with  Calvin,  288- 
291;  criticises  the  death  of 
Servetus,  291,  343,  345;  men- 
tioned, 316,  361,  443. 

Catechisms,  Genevan,  of  1537, 
184,  193;  of  1542,  275. 

Catherine  de'  Medici,  418. 

Cauvin,  Gerard,  Calvin's  father, 
career,  23-30;  wishes  his  son  to 
study  law,  44,  71;  quarrel  with 
the  Noyon  Chapter,  45,  46; 
influence,  81-83, 91, 92;  death, 
52;  mentioned,  40. 

Cauvin,  Jacques,  23. 

Cauvin,  Marie,  26,  158,  233. 

Cauvin,  Richard,  23,  31. 

Chaillou,  Antoine,  iii. 

Champereaux,  Aime,  284,  291. 

Champion,  Antoine,  164. 

Chandieu,  Antoine,  385. 

Chapeaurouge,  Ami  de,  203,  206, 

254. 

Chappuis,  Jean,  173,  299. 

Charlemagne,  18. 

Charles  V.,  Emperor,  union  ef- 
forts, 238-242;  mentioned,  4, 
157,  175,  183,  303,  308,  312, 
323. 

Charles  III.,  of  Savoy,  165. 

Chauvet,  Raimond,  291. 

Chevalier,  Antoine,  364. 

Choisy,  Eugene,  xvi. 

Chrestien,  Florent,  366. 

Church,  Calvin's  doctrine  of, 
418-421. 

Colladon,    Germain,    333,    348, 

349 >  434. 
Colladon,  Nicolas,  settles  m 
Geneva,  314;  friendship  for 
Calvin,  348,  434;  Life  of  Cal- 
vin, xii;  on  Calvin's  family, 
25;  on  Olivetan's  influence, 
47,  79;  on  Calvin's  studious 
habits,  48;  on  authorship  of 
Cop's  address,  100;  on  letters 

of  1536-37,  154. 
College  of  Geneva,  see  Academy. 
Coligny,  Admiral,  379,  386. 
Conipagnie,  the  Venerable,  269, 

289,309,315.363,385- 
Comparet,  the  Brothers,  3  5 1-3  5  5 . 


Index 


449 


Confession  of  Faith,  the  Gene- 
van, of  1537,  194.  204,  205. 
Congregation,  the  Genevan,  269, 

3^^.316,319,435- 
Connam,  Francois  de,  50. 
Consistory,    the    Genevan,    271, 
281-283,    3or-304,    306,    309, 
311,  322,  338-340,  344,  345, 

429,  432- 
Cop,  Guillaume,  39,  54. 
Cop,  Michel,  40,  291,  298,  434. 
Cop,     Nicohis,     friendship     for 

Calvin,  40,  55,  68,   100,   101, 

107;  his  Address,  68,  98-105; 

also,  83-86,  89,  94,  95,    113, 

114,    119;    flight    from    Paris, 

106,  107,  126. 
Coppin,  "Spirituel,"  293. 
Coraud,  Elie,  at  Paris,  107,  108; 

work     in     Geneva,     200-207; 

banished,  212,  213;  death,  217; 

mentioned,  245,  248. 
'Cordier,      Mathurin,      Calvin's 

teacher,  34;  trials  in  Geneva, 

247;  teacher  in  Lausanne,  362; 

last    days    at    Geneva,    364; 

mentioned,  37,  41,  49>  54,  259, 

289,361. 
Corne,  Amblard,  301. 
Cornelius,  Carl  Adolf,  xiv,  xvi. 
Costan,  Charles,  26. 
Costan,  Jeanne,  26. 
Courtin,  Michel,  46. 
Coverdale,  Miles,  379. 
Cox,  Richard,  379. 
Cranmer,   Thomas,  Archbishop, 

379,  389,  403- 
Crespin,  Jean,  349. 
Cunitz,  Edouard,  ix, 
Curtet,  Jean,  203,  204. 
Czenger,  Confession  of,  395. 


Daguet,  Pierre,  357. 

Danes,  Pierre,  55,  57- 

Daniel,  Francois,  50,  51,  53,  55, 

62,  63,  66,  88,93,  no. 
Desfosses,  Pernet,  204. 
Desmoulins,  Camille,  21. 
Desmay,  Jacques,  117,  118. 


J)()unirrguc,  fimilc.  Life  of  Cal- 
vin, xvii;  on  Calvin's  Seneca, 
61;  letter  to  Bucer,  65;  on 
Calvin's  conversion,  87,  89, 
g3;  on  Calvin's  imj)risonment, 
115;  on  Bolsec's  calumny,  116- 
118. 

Doyncau,  Francois,  121 

Drclincourt,  Charles,  118. 

Duchemin,  Nicolas,  50,  52,  53, 
55,  56,  59,  63,  88,  93,  154. 

Duguie,  Antoine  de  la,  121. 

Duniont,  Claude,  351. 

Duns  Scotus,  see  Scotus. 

Dyer,  Thomas  H.,  xiii. 


Eck,  Johann  Maicr  of,  240,  242, 
Edward  VI.,   of  England,   348. 

,379,389,391-     ,    , 

Eglise,  Philippe   de  1',  285,  295. 

Eidguenots,  Genevan  party,  202. 

Elizabeth,  of  England,  364,  390. 

Emmanuel  Philibert,  Duke  of 
Savoy,  356,  371-373- 

Eppeville,  30. 

Erasmus,  Desiderius,  Cop's  ad- 
dress borrows  from,  102,  105; 
mentioned,  8,  37,  39,  40,  43, 
109,  168. 

Erichson,  Alfred,  xi,  222. 

Ercole,  II.,  of  Ferrara,  150. 

Estienne,  Robert,  314. 

Estoile,  Pierre  Taisan  de  1',  47, 
51,52. 


Fabri,  Adhemar,  Bishop,  160. 
Fabri,    Christopher,    235,     249, 

259- 
Fabri,  Jean,  276. 
Fairbairn,  Andrew  Martin,  xviii, 

61,  441,  442. 
Faith,  Calvin's  doctrine  of,  414, 

415- 
Falais,  the  Sieur  de,  315,  317. 
Farel,  Guillaume,  early   history, 

9,    12,    15,    168;   acquaintance 


450 


Index 


Farel — Continued . 

with  Calvin,  127;  early  work 
in  Geneva,  169-174,  177-181; 
induces  Calvin  to  stay,  158, 
181,  182;  the  Articles  of  1537, 
184-192;  the  Confession,  184, 
194,  204,  205;  attacked  by 
Caroli,  195-201;  disputes  with 
Anabaptists,  201,  202;  trials 
and  banishment  from  Geneva, 
205-213;  pastor  in  Neuchatel, 
217;  relations  to  Genevan  lit- 
urgy, 223-225;  condones  Car- 
oli, 230-232;  consulted  regard- 
ing Calvin's  marriage,  233- 
236;  the  "Guillermin"  party, 
246;  reconcilation  with  Ge- 
neva, 248,  249;  furthers  Cal- 
vin's return  to  Geneva,  258- 
262;  cannot  himself  return, 
284;  death  of  his  nephew,  287; 
commends  Castellio,  288;  con- 
demns Bolsec,  319;  Calvin's 
declaration  regarding  Serve- 
tus,  329,  ZSZ'^  at  Servetus's 
death,  341;  Calvin's  letters  to, 
379;  farewell   to  Calvin,  438, 

439- 
Favre,    Franchequine,    301-303, 

306,  308. 
Favre,  Francois,    301-303,    306, 

308. 
Favre,  Gaspard,  301-303. 
Feray,  Claude,  241,  261. 
Ferron,  Jean,  285. 
Fontaine,    Nicolas   de   la,    333, 

335- 

Forge,  Estienne   de  la,  79,  119, 
120,  131. 

Fortet,  the  College,  54,  107. 

Foster,  Herbert  Darling,  159, 
163. 

Fouquet,  Francois,  121. 

France,  the  College  de,  7,  54, 
82. 

Francis  I.,  of  France,  character, 
2;  patron  of  learning,  7,  37, 
54;  relations  to  Le  Fevre  and 
Berquin,  14,  15,  was  Calvin's 
Seneca  intended  to  influence 
him?  61;  interferes    in    scho- 


lastic quarrels  of  1533,  67; 
interferes  after  Cop's  address, 
107;  Calvin's  letter  to,  128, 
130,  132-136,  252,  378;  invites 
Melanchthon  to  France,  157; 
intrigues  regarding  Geneva, 
175,  207;  thanks  Calvin,  242. 
Francis  II.,  of  France,  372,  386, 

387. 

Frederick  III.,  the  Elector,  379, 
399,  400. 

Froment,  Antoine,  work  in  Ge- 
neva, 170. 

Furbity,  Guy,  171. 


GaHffe,  Jacques  August,  xiv. 

GaUffe,  Jean  Barthelemy  Gaifre, 
xiv, 

Gallars,  Nicolas  des,  291,  434. 

Geneston,  Matthieu,  285,  291. 

Geneva,  till  Calvin's  coming, 
159-18 1 ;  the  counts,  bishops, 
and  vicedornimis,  160;  the 
"Franchises,"  160;  the  General 
Assembly,  160,  166,  178;  the 
councils,  160,  161,  166,  178, 
179;  commercial  and  religious 
characteristics,  161-164;  the 
"Eidguenots"  and  "Mame- 
louks,"  165;  alHance  with 
Freiburg  and  Bern,  165;  re- 
formatory movements,  166- 
181;  gains  independence,  176; 
sumptuary  regulations,  178; 
state  at  Calvin's  coming,  181; 
Calvin's  early  work  in,  182- 
215;  the  Articles  of  1537,  184- 
192;  the  Catechism  of  1537, 
184,  193;  the  Confession,  194, 
204,  205;  Anabaptists  in,  201, 
202;  party  divisions  in,  202- 
208;  Bernese  "ceremonies" 
in,  208-213;  Calvin  banished, 
211-213;  Calvin's  return  made 
possible,  245-262;  "Guillcr- 
mins,"  246-248,  255-258; 
"  Artichauds,"  255-257;  quar- 
rel   with     Bern     over     lands 


Index 


451 


Geneva — Continued. 

of  Saint-Victor,  253,  257; 
Calvin  returns,  258-262;  his 
home  and  salary,  263,  264; 
the  Ordonnances,  265-274; 
the  Venerable  Compagnic,  269; 
the  Consistory,  271;  the  Cate- 
chism of  1542,  275;  recodifi- 
cation of  laws,  275-277;  rec- 
onciliation witla  Bern,  1542- 
44,  277,  278;  was  it  a  theoc- 
racy? 279;  rigorous  govern- 
ment, 281-283;  the  plague  in, 
286-288;  parties  in  1545,  292; 
case  of  Ameaux,  295-297;  reg- 
ulation of  taverns,  297;  plays, 
298;  baptismal  names,  299; 
the  refugees  in,  300,  313,  314; 
Perrin  and  the  Favres,  30 1-3 14 ; 
the  Arquebusiers,  304;  case  of 
Gruet,  306,  307;  Perrin  and 
Maigret,  308-310;  case  of 
Bolsec,  315-320;  approves  the 
Institutes,  321;  Perrin  in 
power,  322-324;  Servetus,  332- 
342;  contest  over  Berthelier's 
excommunication,  338-340; 
growing  power  of  French 
refugees,  348,  350,  353;  over- 
throw of  the  Perrinists,  350- 
356;  Calvin  aids  industrial 
development,  359;  founda- 
tion of  the  Academy,  360-367; 
in  poHtical  peril,  370-373; 
honors  to  Calvin,  373-375; 
Knox's  estimate  of  377;  last 
honors  to  Calvin,  436-440, 
444. 

Geneve,  Claude,  354. 

Geroult,  Guillaume,  330. 

Gerson,  Jean  Charlier,  5. 

God,  Calvin's  doctrine  of,  409, 
410. 

Goetz,  Walter,  xiv. 

Goulaz,  Jean,  203,  204. 

Grindal,    Edmund,   Archbishop, 

379- 
Gropper,  Johann,  242. 
Grynaeus,  Simon,  231,  379. 
Gruet,  Jacques,  295,  306,  307. 


(iuillermins,  the,  246-248,  255- 
258,  265,  269,  281. 

H 

llagenau.  Colloquy  at,  238,  240. 
Haller,  Berthold,  103. 
Ilalk-r,  Johann,  372,  379. 
liangest,  family  of,  39,  41. 
Hangest,  Adrien  dc,  27. 
Hangest,   Charles  de.   Bishop  of 

Noyon,  20,  45. 
Hangest,  Claude  de,  27,  28,  45, 

Hangest,  Ives  de,  28. 

Hangest,     Jean    de.     Bishop    of 

Noyon,  20,  45,  53. 
Hangest,  Joachim  de,  28. 
Hangest,  Louis  de,  27. 
Harvey,  William,  327. 
Hedio,    Kaspar,    218,    227,   260, 

379- 

Heidelberg,  Catechism  of,  399, 
400. 

Henri  d'Albret,  King  of  Na- 
varre, 7. 

Henry  II.,  of  France,  persecu- 
tion under,  382,  386;  effect  of 
his  death,  372;  mentioned,  305, 
314,371,418. 

Henry,  Paul,  Life  of  Calvin, 
xiii;  on  Calvin's  Seneca,  6r. 

Herminjard,  Aime  Louis,  editor, 
xii. 

Hermonymus,  George,  9. 

Hesshusen,  Tilemann,  398,  399, 
421. 

Hooper,  John,  Bishop,  379. 

Hugh,  King  of  France,  19. 

Hugucs,  Bezanson,  165. 

Huguenots,  the,  Calvin's  rela- 
tions to,  380-388;  their  Con- 
jession,  385, 

Huss,  John,  419. 


Institutes,  the,  edition  of  1536, 
III,  128-149;  edition  of  1539, 
229;  edition  of  1559,  368,  369; 


45- 


Index 


Institutes— Continued. 

used    in    England,     391;     its 
influence,  377,  425- 


James  I.,  of  England,  390,  407. 

Jehannet,  151,  152. 

John  of  Savoy,  Bishop,  164,  165. 

John  Casiniir,  Elector,  400. 

Jonas,  Justus,  379. 

Junius,  Francis,  366. 

Jussie,  Jeanne  de,  169,  170,  174- 


Kampschulte,  Friedrich  Wil- 
helm,  writings,  xiv;  on  Calvin's 
Seneca,  61;  on  Calvin's  con- 
version, 80,  81;  on  calumny 
against  Calvin,  118. 

Klebitz,  Wilhelm,  399. 

Klein,  Catherine,  127. 

Knox,  John,  relations  to  Calvin, 
379,  390-393;  estimate  of  Ge- 
neva, 377. 

Kuntz,  Peter,  Bernese  minister, 
211,  214,  248,  251. 


Lambert,  Denis,  183. 
Lambert,  Jean,  265. 
Lang,  August,  writings,  xvi;  on 


Calvin's    conversion, 


86, 


95;  on  Cop's  address,  99,  10 1, 
102;  on  Calvin's  imprison- 
ment, 115. 

Lange,  Jean,  346. 

Lasco,  John  a,  379,  394- 

Lasius,  Balthasar,  132. 

Lausanne,  Protestantism  intro- 
duced into,  183;  meeting  with 
Caroli  in,  196,  197;  the  school 
at,  362;  ecclesiastical  disci- 
pline in,  ibid.;  the  "Five 
Scholars"  of,  382. 

Le  Clerc,  Jean,  13. 

Lecoultre,  Henri,  on  Calvin's 
Seneca,  58-61,  96;  on  his  con- 
version, 83,  84. 


Lect,  Antoine,  301. 

Le  Fevre,  Jacques,  influence  and 
character,  7,  9-15,  22;  at- 
tacked, 36,  37;  Calvin's  visit 
to,  112;  mentioned,  82,  89,  93, 
109,  168,  170,  195. 

Lefevre,  Robert,  21. 

Lefranc,  Abel,  writings,  xv;  on 
Calvin's  conversion,  82;  on 
calumny  against  Calvin,  116- 
118. 

Le  Franc,  Jeanne,  Calvin's 
mother,  24-26. 

Leo  X.,  Pope,  3. 

Le  Vasseur,  Jacques,  118. 

Lewis  IV.,  Elector,  400. 

Libertines,  alleged  party  in  Ge- 
neva, 293-295. 

Liberty,  civil,  debt  to  Calvin, 
403-408. 

Liturgy,  Calvin's,  221-226. 

Lobstein,  Paul,  xi. 

Loyola,  Ignatius,  36. 

Lullin,  Jean,  206,  254. 

Luneburg,  the  Duke  of,  240. 

Luther,  Martin,  influence  on 
Calvin,  76;  Cop's  Address  uses 
his  sermon,  103;  Calvin's  in- 
debtedness to,  and  sympathy 
with,  146,  147,  396,  421-424; 
relations  with  Calvin,  243, 
244;  mentioned,  i,  6,  10,  218, 
416,  434. 

M 

Maigret,  f^aurent,  308-310. 
Maisonneuve,    Jean    Baudichon 

de  la,  351. 
"  Mamelouks,"     Geneva    party, 

202,  353. 
Man,  Calvin's  doctrine  of,  412, 

413-  ^        . 

Marcourt,  Antoine,  119,  125, 
217,  245,  257-259. 

Marche,  the  College  de  la,  34,  35- 

Mare,  Henri  de  la,  Genevan  min- 
ister, 212,  245,  257,  284,  285, 
295>  297. 

^Marguerite  d'Angouleme,   char- 


Index 


453 


Marguerite  d'Angoulcmc —  Con- 
tinued. 
acter  and  services  to  cause  of 
learning,  7,9-15;  relations  to 
Bourges,  51;  favors  reforma- 
tory preaching,  67;  attacked, 
68,  98,  105;  alleged  interest  in 
Calvin  in  1533,  108;  ])rotects 
Le  Fevre,  112;  accjuainted 
with  Froment,  170;  thanks 
Calvin,  243;  protects  the  "  Spir- 
itucls,"   293;   mentioned,    151, 

379- 

Marot,  Clement,  151,  226. 

Masson,  Papire,  61. 

Martyr  (Vermigli),  Peter,  379. 

Mary  I.,  Queen  of  England,  34S. 

Megander,  Kaspar,  211. 

Mclanchthon,  Philip,  invited  to 
visit  France,  157;  suspects 
Calvin's  orthodoxy,  201;  ac- 
quaintance with  Calvin,  238- 
242;  cited  by  TroUiet,  321; 
approves  death  of  Servetus, 
343;  his  "synergism,"  416; 
mentioned,  1,217,379,398,399. 

Merle  d'Aubigne,  Jean  Henri, 
xiv. 

Molard,  Hudriot  du,  271,  350. 

Monathon,  Jean,  254. 

Montaigu,    the    College   de,    36, 

38,  48,  49- 

Montaigu,  Pierre  de,  36. 

Montchenu,  the  sieur  de,  207. 

Montnaor,  the  family  of,  see 
Hangest. 

Morand,  Jean,  Genevan  minis- 
ter, 245,  257. 

Moreau,  Simon,  287. 

Morges,  meeting  at,  248. 

Miillcr,  Karl,  writings,  xvi,  380; 
on  Calvin's  friends,  39;  on  his 
conversion,  89;  on  Cop's  ad- 
dress,  100,   TCI. 

Miinster,  Sebastian,  128. 

Musculus,  Wolfgang,  379. 

Mvconius,  Oswald,  127,  201,  379. 
N 

Names,  permissible  in  Geneva, 
299. 


Normandic,  Laurent  de,  314 
348,  349,  434. 

Norton,  I'hcnnas,  379. 

Noyon,  account  of,  18-22;  Cal- 
vin's early  life  in,  26-30;  visits 
to,  52,  J  14;  imj)ris(jne(l  in,  1 14- 
116. 


Obry,  Nicolas,  46. 
Occam,  William  of,  5,  8. 
Ochino,      Bernardino,      379. 
Htcolampadius,      Johann,      127, 

192,  326. 
Olevianus,     Kaspar,     366,     379, 

399.  400- 
Olivetan,  Pierre  Robert,  related 

to  Calvin,  40,  41;  influence  in 

Calvin's    conversion,    yg,    82; 

85,  87,  89,  90;  translation  of  the 

Bible,    128;    in    Geneva,    169; 

estate,  220;  mentioned,  22,  66. 
Oporin,  Johann,  132,  216. 
Ordonnances,  the  Genevan,  265- 

274. 
Orleans,   Calvin   in,   47-50,   62- 

65,  123-125- 


Paguet,  Frangois,  277. 

Paris,  the  University  of,  5,  31-43; 
Calvin  in,  30-43,  53-62,  66- 
69,  107,  108,  157;  Huguenot 
Church  organized  in,  384;  the 
Synod  of  1559  in,  385. 

Paul  IV.,  Pope,  372. 

Peter  the  Hermit,  21. 

Perrin,  Ami,  as  a  "Guillermin" 
leader,  255,  281;  sent  for  Cal- 
vin, 258,  261;  helps  draft  the 
Ordonnances,  265;  quarrels 
with  Calvin,  301-314;  am- 
bassador to  France,  305,  308; 
accused  and  tried,  308-310; 
his  character,  310;  a  syndic, 
312,  322;  in  power,  322-324; 
in  the  case  of  Servetus,  336; 
defeated  regarding  the  Consis- 


454 


Index 


Verrin— Continued . 

tory,  344;  favored  by  Bern, 
346;  fears  French  refugees, 
348-350;  fall  and  condemna- 
tion, 350-357- 

Fernet,  Jean,  351. 

Pertemps,  Claude,  204,  255,  265, 
281. 

Pflug,  Julius,  242. 

Philip  II.,  of  Spain,  371. 

Philip,  of  Hesse,  379. 

Philip,  of  Savoy,  Bishop,  164. 

PhiUppe,  Claude,  301. 

Phihppe,  Jean,  Genevan  party 
leader,  203,  205,  206;  his  death, 
256,  257,  281,  283,  301. 

Pierson,  AUard,  on  Calvin's  con- 
version, 81,  82;  on  Cop's  ad- 
dress, 82,  99. 

Pighius,  Albert,  239. 

Pistorius,  Johann,  242. 

Place,  Pierre  de  la,  iii. 

Platter,  Thomas,  132. 

Pecquet,  Antoine,  294. 

Poissy,  the  Colloquy  in,  387. 

Porral,  Ami,  203,  207,  265,  281. 

Poupin,  Abel,  Genevan  minister, 

285,  298,  303,  306,  329. 
Prayer-Book,   the  Enghsh,   Cal- 
vin's opinion  of,  389,  390. 
Predestination,      Cahan's      doc- 
trine of,   138,    T48,   229,  315- 
319*  397.  414-418. 

Q 

Quakers,  the,  426. 

Quintin,  the  "Spirituel,"  294. 


Radziwill,  Nicolas,  394. 

Raemond,  Florimond  de,  on 
Calvin's  conversion,  79;  on 
his  life  in  Angouleme,  no, 
in;  in  Poitiers,  120-123. 

Ramus,  Peter,  21. 

Randon,  Jean,  364. 

Regensburg,  Colloquy  in,  238, 
240-243,  262. 


Renee,  Duchess  of  Ferrara,  150- 

154,  315.  379- 

Reuchlin,  Johann,  8,  40. 

Reuss,  Edouard,  xi. 

Richardet,  Claude,  203,  206,  257. 

Richardot,  Francois,  154. 

Richebourg,  Louis  de,  241. 

Richelieu,  Cardinal,  118. 

Rigot,  Claude,  335,  336. 

Rihel,  Wendehn,  228. 

Roget,  Amedee,  xv. 

Rouscelin,  21. 

Roset,  Caude,  265,  276. 

Roussel,  Gerard,  reformatory 
zeal,  9,  12-14;  preaching  in 
Paris,  67;  Calvin  circulates 
his  writings,  68;  influence  in 
Calvin's  conversion,  86,  93, 
97;  arrested,  107,  112;  ac- 
cepts bishopric  of  Oloron,  155, 
156;  Calvin  criticises,  97,  155; 
mentioned,  22,  82,  104,  108, 
109. 


s 


Sacraments,  Calvin*s  doctrine 
of  the,  421-424;  Calvin  on,  76, 
122,  141,  396. 

Sadoleto,  Jacopo,  Cardinal,  Let- 
ter and  Calvin's  Reply,  73-75, 
77.  78,  243,  250-252. 

Sage,  Charles  le,  i?i. 

Saint-Aldegonde,  Philippe  de 
Marnix  de,  366. 

Salvation,  Calvin's    doctrine  of, 

413-4  i.v 

Sansoex,  the  sieur  de,  263. 

Saunier,  Antoine,  169,  180,  247. 

Savoye,  Claude,  179. 

Schail,  Philip,  writings,  xi,  xv. 

Schwarz,  Diebold,  222. 

Scotus,  Phins,  5,  8;  Calvin's  sim- 
ilarity to,  149,  418. 

Scriptures,  the,  Calvin's  doc- 
trine of,  410-412. 

Seeberg,  Reinhold,  quoted,  424. 

Segismund,  August,  King  of 
Poland,  379,  394. 

Seneca,  Calvin's  Commentary  on, 
57- 


Index 


455 


Sept,  Michel,  Genevan  parly 
leader,  203,  246,  255,  256, 
28r. 

Servetus,  Michael,  his  history 
and  fate,  325-344;  Calvin  at- 
tempts to  nicet  in  Paris,  119; 
Calvin  opjjoses,  1 19,  201;  Cas- 
tellio  criticises  his  death,  291, 
342;  his  expiatory  monument, 
342;  mentioned,  443. 

Sinapius,  Johann,  152,  153. 

Sonierset,  Lord  Protector,  of 
England,  379,  389. 

Sorbon,   Robert  de,  6. 

Sorbonne,  the,  6,  11. 

"  Sjnritucls,"  see  Libertines. 

Stalielin,  Ernst,  xiv. 

Stiihelin,  Rudolf,  writings,  xvi; 
on  Calvin's  conversion,  85. 

Standonch,  Jean,  36. 

Stebbing,  Henry,  xiii. 

Stordeur,  Jean,  221,  236. 

Strassburg,  Calvin,  in,  216-244, 
361;  its  leaders,  218;  the  French 
Church  in,  220;  its  liturgy, 
222;  theological  instruction, 
227;  the  plague  in,  241;  Ser- 
vetus visits,  326;  its  attrac- 
tions for  Calvin,  260,  261. 

Sturm,  Jakob,  of  Strassburg,  218. 

Sturm,  Johann,  of  Strassburg, 
217,  218,  227,   232,   239,  365, 

379- 
Sulzer,  Simon,  379. 


Tagaut,  Jean,  362,  363. 

Tillet,  Louis  du,  Calvin's  friend- 
ship, with,  109-113,  120,  125, 
126,  150,  152,  157,  158; 
breach  with  Calvin,  196,  215; 
offers  aid,  219. 

Tourneur,  Antoine,  56. 

Trechsel,  Gaspard,  327. 

Trechsel,  Melchior,  327. 

Trent,  the  Council  of,  323,   402. 

Trepperau,  Louis,  285. 

Trolliet,  Jean,  quarrel  with  Cal- 
vin, 320,  321. 

Trie,  Guillaume,  settles   in    Ge- 


neva, 314;  in  the  case  of  Ser- 
vetus, 330-332;  a  burgher  of 
Geneva,  340;  mentioned,  434. 

U 

Ursinus,  Zac  harias,  399. 


\'andel,  Pierre,  Genevan  party 
leader,  opposes  Calvin,  205, 
215,  306,  31 1-3 1 4;  character, 
310;  favored  by  Bern,  346; 
fears  F'rcnch  refugees,  348- 
350;    fall  and    condemnation, 

350-357- 

Vatable,  P'ranyois,  Calvin's 
teacher,  9,  12,  22,  55,  57. 

Vatines,  Jean  de,  27. 

Vernou,  Jean,  121. 

Veron,  Philippe,  121. 

Viret,  Pierre,  beginnings  of  Cal- 
vin's friendship  with,  127; 
early  work  in  Geneva,  171- 
173,  180;  introduces  Protes- 
tantism into  Lausanne,  183, 
209;  f|uarrel  with  Caroli,  196; 
marriage,  233;  reconciliation 
with  Geneva,  249,  251;  aids 
Calvin's  return,  259,  265,  284; 
Castellio  complains  to,  290; 
Servetus  appeals  to,  329; 
driven  from  Lausanne  and 
settles  in  Geneva,  362,  363; 
mentioned,  236,  305,  346,  379, 
434- 

Villegagnon,  Nicolas  Durand, 
401. 

w 

Waldenses,  the,  169,  243,  382. 
Weiss,  Nathanael,  xviii. 
Werly,  Pierre,  171, 
Wernle,   Paul,   x-vi;   on   Calvin's 

conversion,  89. 
Westphal,   Joachim,  controversy 

with  Calvin,  75,  76,  398,  421. 
Westminster,  the  Confession  and 

Catechisms  of,  390. 


456 


Index. 


Whitgift,  John,  Archbishop,  391. 

Whittingham,  Wilham,  26,  379. 

Wolmar,  Melchior,  friendship 
with  Calvin,  39,49,  51;  teaches 
Calvin  Greek,  52,  54;  possible 
influence  in  Cahdn's  conver- 
sion, 80,  85,  87,  89,  90. 

Worms,  the  Colloquy  in,  238,  240, 
259,  261. 

Wyclif,  John,  419. 


Ximenes,  Cardinal  8. 


Z 


Zanchi,  Jeronimo,  379. 

Zebedee,  Andre,  259,  346. 

Zell,  Matthias,  232. 

Zurich,  the  Consensus  of,  395- 
397. 

Zwingli,  Huldreich,  Calvin's  re- 
lation to,  396,  421-424;  on  ex- 
communication, 192;  men- 
tioned, I,  416,  419. 


Heroes  of  the  Reformation 

F.DiTKD  ny 

SAMUEL  MACAULEY  JACKSON, 
Professor  of  Church   History,   New  York   University. 

FULLY    ILLUSTRATED 

A  Serifs  of  biographies  of  the  leaders  in  the  Protes- 
tant Reformation. 

The  literary  skill  and  the  standing  as  scholars  of  the 
writers  who  have  agreed  to  prepare  these  biographies 
will,  it  is  believed,  ensure  for  them  a  wide  acceptance  on 
the  part  not  only  of  special  students  of  the  period  but  of 
the  general  reader.  Full  use  will  be  made  in  them  of  the 
correspondence  of  their  several  subjects  and  of  any  other 
autobiographical  material  that  may  be  available.  The 
general  reader  will  be  pleased  to  find  all  these  citations 
translated  into  English  and  the  scholar  to  find  them 
referred  specifically  to  their  source.  The  value  of  these 
volumes  will  be  furthered  by  comprehensive  literary  and 
historical  references  and  adequate  indexes. 

It  is,  of  course,  the  case  that  each  one  of  the  great 
teachers  whose  career  is  to  be  presented  in  this  series 
looked  at  religious  truth  and  at  the  problems  of  Chris- 
tianity from  a  somewhat  different  point  of  view.  On  this 
ground  an  important  feature  in  each  volume  of  the  series 
will  be  a  precise  and  comprehensive  statement,  given  as 
nearly  as  practicable  in  the  language  of  the  original 
writer,  of  the  essential  points  in  his  theology. 

It  is  planned  that  the  narratives  shall  be  not  mere 
eulogies,  but  critical  biographies  ;  and  the  defects  of 
judgment  or  sins  of  omission  or  commission  on  the  parts 
of  the  subjects  will  not  be  passed  by  or  extenuated.  On 
the  other  hand  they  will  do  full  justice  to  the  nobility  of 
character  and  to  the  distinctive  contribution  to  human 
progress  made  by  each  one  of  these  great  Protestant 
leaders  of  the  Reformation  period.  The  series  will  avoid 
the  partisanship  of  writers  like  Merle  d'Aubigne,  and,  in 
the  opposite  direction,  of  the  group  of  which  Johannes 
Janssen  may  be  taken  as  a  type. 


HEROES  OF  THE  REFORMATION 


I.— MARTIN  LUTHER  (1483-1546).     The  Hero  of  the  Ref- 

ormation.      By  Henry  Eyster  Jacobs,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

With  73  Illustrations.     12° $1.50 

"  The  initial  volume  of  the  Heroes  of  the  Reformation  Series  is  a  worthy  in- 
auguration of  what  cannot  but  prove  an  interesting  and  instructive  contribution 
to  a  most  important  epoch  of  history.  .  .  .  Professor  Jacobs  is  an  exception- 
ally sympathetic  and  competent  biographer.^  .  .  .  The  author  has  availed 
himself  of  all  the  latest  sources  of  information,  and  done  the  needful  work  of 
selection  and  condensation  with  excellent  judgment  and  skill."  —  Christian 
Intelligencer. 

II.  — PHILIP  MELANCHTHON  (1497-1560).  The  Prot- 
estant Preceptor  of  Germany.  By  James  William  Richard, 
D.D.     With  35  Illustrations.     12°      .         .         .         .         $1.50 

"  This  work  will  be  valued  by  the  general  reader  who  likes  a  well-told  biog- 
raphy, and  bj^  the  historian  who  is  looking  for  facts  and  not  opinions  about  facts, 
and  by  the  wise  teacher  of  the  young  who  desires  his  pupils  to  read  that  which 
will  at  once  instruct  and  inspire  them  with  respect  for  what  is  great  and  honor- 
able. For  these  purposes,  I  believe  no  other  work  on  Melanchthon  can  compare 
with  this  one." — Universalist  Leader, 

III.— DESIDERIUS  ERASMUS  (1467-1536).  The  Hu- 
manist in  the  Service  of  the  Reformation.  By  Ephraim 
Emerton,  Ph.D.     With  36  Illustrations.      12°  .         .         $1.50 

"  Professor  Emerton  has  done  a  thorough  and  skilful  piece  of  work.  .  .  . 
He  has  given  his  readers  a  graphic,  spirited,  well-balanced  and  trustworthy  study, 
which  contains  all  which  most  readers  care  to  know,  and  in  a  manner  which 
they  will  find  acceptable.  The  book  is  a  valuable  addition  to  the  series." — 
Congregational  ist. 

IV. —  THEODORE   BEZA   (1549.1605).      The   Counsellor   of 

the  French  Reformation.     By  Henry  Martyn  Baird,  Ph.D. 

With  24  Illustrations.       12° $1.50 

"No  one  could  so  well  present  the  life  of  Beza  in  its  true  relations  and  in  so 
pleasing  and  popular  a  style  as  the  accomplished  historian  of  the  Huguenots. 
Dr.  Baird  has  not  only  exceptional  familiarity  with  the  period,  but  fullest  sym- 
pathy with  the  hero,  and  accordingly  has  produced  a  book  of  special  interest  and 
value." — Christian  Intelligencer. 

v.— HULDREICH   ZWINGLI  (1484-1531).      The  Reformer 

of   German   Switzerland.      By   Samuel  Macauley  Jackson, 

LL.D.     With  30  Illustrations,  a  Special  Map,  Battle  Plan,  and 

a  Facsimile  Letter.     12° $2.00 

"  It  is  notable  as  the  first  adequate  life  of  Zwingli  by  an  English-speaking 
author  .  .  .  portrays  the  man,  the  accomplished  scholar,  social  reformer,  ardent 
patriot,  the  theologian,  so  far  in  advance  of  his  time  as  to  stand  alone  in  the  faith 
that  all  infants  would  be  saved.  But  Professor  Jackson  is  no  eulogist  and 
exhibits  the  defects  of  Zwingli  with  unsparing  hand,  —  defects  which  appear  due 
to  his  time  and  circumstances,  and  far  less  serious  in  our  judgment  than  some 
which  lie  at  the  door  of  those  whose  fame  has  overshadowed  his."  —  The 
Outlook. 

Send  for  complete  descriptive  circular 
NEW  YORK Q.  P.   PUTNAM'S   SONS LONDON 


HEROES  OF  THE  REFORMATION 


VI.— THOMAS    CRANMER    and   the   Englisli    Reformation. 

1489-1556,     Hy  Ai.nKKr  Fkkdkrick  Pollard,  M.A.,  F.R.II.S. 

With    21    Illustrations.       Crown    Octavo.       (IJy    mail,    $1.50.) 

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"The  life  of  the  eminent  martyr  is  here  presented  in  what  were  its  true  re- 
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as  well  as  virtues  and  presents  a  vital  picture  of  the  great  prelate." — Detroit  Free 
Fress. 

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virtue  in  Knglish  works  on  Cranmer.  The  events  in  which  Cranmer  had  a  share 
are  recorded  with  fairness  and  accuracy." — The  Lutheratt. 

VII.— JOHN  KNOX  the  Hero  of  the  Scottish  Reformation. 
By  Henry  Cowan,  D.D. 

With  28  Illustrations  and  2  Facsimile  Letters.     Crown  Octavo. 
(By  mail,  $1.50.)     Net $1-35 

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tastes  of  the  general  reader,  is  based  on  a  genuine  examination  of  the  original 
authorities,  and  keeps  fully  in  view  the  claims  of  the  serious  student  who  wishes 
to  remain  in  touch  with  them  at  every  point." — Glasgow  Herald. 

VIII.  BALTHASAR  HUBMAIER  the  Leader  of  the  Ana- 
baptists. By  Henry  C.  Vedder,  Professor  of  Church  History 
in  Crozer  Theological  Seminary.  With  24  Illustrations,  i  Fac- 
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Professor  Vedder  has  spent  a  great  deal  of  his  time  in  the  study  of 
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ing Hubmaier's  life,  made  a  special  journey  to  the  country  in  which 
Hiibmaier  lived  and  died.  The  result  is  a  faithful  and  spirited 
presentation  of  the  facts  of  Hubmaier's  life  and  an  exceptionally  able 
presentation  of  his  teachings.  We  have  in  this  book  numerous  well- 
chosen  excerpts  from  Hubmaier's  writings,  translated  into  graceful 
English,  thus  enabling  the  reader  to  form  his  own  conclusions  as  to 
Hubmaier's  ability. 

For  list  of  volumes  in  preparation  see  separate  circular 


Heroes  of  the  Nations. 


A  Series  of  biographical  studies  of  the  lives  and 
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HEROES  OF  THE  NATIONS 


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R.  L.  Fletcher. 
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HEROES  OF  THE  NATIONS 


MOHAMMED.  By   D.    S. 

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Other  volumes  in  preparation  are : 

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Smith. 
MARLBOROUGH.       By  C.  W.  C. 

Oman. 


WASHINGTON.       By    J.    A. 
Harrison. 


RICHARD  THE  LION-HEARTED 
By  T.  A.  Archer. 

WILLIAM    THE    SILENT.        By 
Ruth  Putnam. 

CHARLES     THE     BOLD.         By 

Ruth  Putnam. 

GREGORY  VII.     By  F.  Urquhart. 
MAHOMET.   By  D.  S.  Margoliouth 


New  York— G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS,  Publishers— London 


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